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SIMON PETER 



HIS EARLY LIFE AND TIMES. 



BY 



chas. s: Robinson, d. d. 




AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 



\ 



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^S^S-15 

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COPYRIGHT, 1889, 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



M 



PREFACE. 

The experiment, which has been ventured upon 
in the present volume, has been somewhat difficult, 
and I do not yet see whether it will be altogether 
successful. The chapters are nothing more or less 
than lectures delivered in the course of my pastoral 
work in the pulpit. I have wondered if they would 
not prove easier reading if they were cast into the 
form of a biographical sketch, taking up the inci- 
dents in the order of the Harmonies of the Gospels. 
But, do what I would, they are very much like ex- 
pository discourses now; and lam willing to help 
the notion by adding texts to the Table of Contents. 
I positively like an occasional repetition of thought 
and didactic illustration which I detect ; for such 
lessons are precisely what I hope most from in any 
forms of good they may do. So I dismiss the work 
to the public, frankly, with a wish that those who 
love this old disciple as I do, may be helped under 
the rehearsal of his weaknesses and strengths as I 
have been along the years which were spent in the 
study of his career. 

Charles Seymour Robinson. 

New York: 57 East Fifty-fourth Street, June 1889. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

I.— A Misunderstood Disciple 5 

" The gospel of the circumcision was committed unto Peter."— 
Gal. 2.7. 

II.— Simon's Parentage and Home 14 

" Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter."— John i 144. 

III. — Boyhood in Gennesaret 24 

"And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, 
Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net." 
— Matt. 4:18. 

IV. — Going up to Jerusalem 34 

" Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before 
the Lord God, the God of Israel."— Exod. 34.23. 

V.— The Fourteenth of Nisan 45 

" Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the 
Lord thy God."— Deut. 16: 1. 

VI. — Simon's First Passover 54 

" And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done 
because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came 
forth out of Egypt." — Exod. 13:8. 

VII.— Judas the Gaulonite 65 

"After this man rose up Judas of Galilee."— Acts 5:37. 

VIII.— Twenty Troubled Years 77 

"At the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun, and the 
land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict 
her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the 
nations."— Isa. 9:1, 

IX.— The Voice in the Wilderness 88 

"He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." — 
John 1:23. 

X. — The Finding of Simon 100 

" He first findeth his own brother Simon."— John 1:41. 

XI. — Simon Becomes Peter in 

"Thou art Simon, the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Ce- 
phas."— John 1.42. 

XII. — The School of Grace 121 

"And they straightway left their nets, and followed him."— 
Matt. 4:20. 



XIII.— Obedience and Success 132 

" Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net."— Luke 

XIV. — "Hither! Behind Me!" 143 

"And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me."— Mark 1:17. 

XV.— Fishers of Men 154 

" And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not: from henceforth thou 
shalt catch men." — Luke 5:10. 

XVI.— Simon's Wife's Mother i65 

" And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever." — ■ 
Luke 4:38. 

XVII. — Jairus' Daughter Raised 176 

" For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, 
and she lay a-dying." — Luke 8: 42. 

XVIII. — Sheep Without a Shepherd 190 

" They were as sheep not having a shepherd." — Mark 6: 34. 

XIX.— The Walk on the Water 204 

" When Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on 
the water." — Matt. 14:29. 

XX. — The Great Confession 217 

" Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God."— John 6:69. 

XXI. — The Gift of the Keys 229 

"And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven."— Matt. 16:19. 

XXII.— " Behind Me, Satan!" 242 

" He rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan." — 
Mark 8:33. 

XXIII.— "With Him in the Holy Mount" 253 

" And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we 
were with him in the holy mount."— 2 Pet. 1:18. 

XXIV.— Fishing to Pay Tribute 267 

"Take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast 
opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money."— 
Matt. 17:27. 

XXV.— The True Doctrine of Forgiveness 282 

"Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; 
but, Until seventy times seven." — Matt. 18:22. 

XXVI— "An Hundred-Fold" 295 

" He shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time." — Mark 
10:30. 



SIMON PETER, 

HIS EARLY LIFE AND TIMES. 



CHAPTER I. 

A MISUNDERSTOOD DISCIPLE. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson once gave this definition of 
a weed: " A weed is a plant out of place. " But la- 
ter in his life, he happened to be commenting upon 
the skill of naturalists in the investigation of vege- 
table forms, habits, and peculiarities. His admiration 
was kindled, as he thought how many thousands of 
species and genera had been already classified in the 
botanies. " Hence a new definition of a weed, " he 
continued; "a weed is a plant not yet understood." 

It is easy to classify fishermen of Galilee as apostles 
"out of place. " But it would be fairer to wait a 
while; possibly we shall be willing before long to fol- 
low the hasty definition with the corrective, and say 
they may be apostles "not yet understood. " At all 
events, the biography of such a man as Simon Peter 
will bear some more study. We may be sure it will 
rise in our estimation in proportion to the measure 
of acquaintance we reach with its particulars and its 
purpose. For the fact is, he has been frightfully mis- 
represented for centuries. 



6 SIMON PETER: 

Simon Peter stands at this hour in a very peculiar 
position, as between two registers of public opinion. 
On the one side, cavilers have found fault with his 
low origin, his impulsive disposition, his rough man- 
ners, and especially his great sin of denying his Lord. 
On the other side, tradition-makers have exalted him 
to the headship of a hierarchical system, and have 
so surrounded his biography with tales of foolish 
fancy that the real man is lost. A fair question is 
before us : Is the world willing to accept a true pict- 
ure of the Apostle of the Circumcision? The gla- 
mour of what is called high- art, as well as the super- 
stition of high-churchism, conceals his figure. Yet 
there never lived an honester, plainer, or more thor- 
oughly genuine man. It is unfair that all the useful 
force of his human record should be surrendered, just 
because a dressing-block is needed in a system, itself 
created out of a perversion. Even John Milton in 
his "Lycidas" talks about — 

" The pilot of the Galilean lake ; 

Two massy keys he bore, of metals twain, 
(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain); 
He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake." 

With the triple crown on his head, and the great 
keys in his hand, the imagination grows bewildered 
in trying to conceive of a " pilot" in guise of a priest. 
Such a creature is no more a fisher of men than a 
fisher of fish. He is but a vague unreality, and 
eludes all attempts at classification. 

Simply told, the narrative of Simon's life is one of 
the most romantic in this world's history. He w r as the 



A MISUNDERSTOOD DISCIPLE. / 

only man ever known to cast a hook in deep water 
for a coin to pay his taxes with. He was the only 
man we read of whose feet trod on waves, finding, 
until his faith failed, a foothold underneath them like 
rock. He came forth of a sudden from the obscurity 
of a recordless existence into a front rank as a preacher 
of the new gospel ; yet his greatest lesson of doctrine 
was received from a sheet full of living creatures, clean 
and unclean, dropped down out of heaven. He was 
led out of prison by an angel, who bewildered him as 
he delivered him; and when he stood at the door 
of a familiar prayer-meeting, the friends on their knees 
declared he was his own ghost. 

There was never anything whatsoever about Simon 
Peter to be set down as tame or commonplace. Had 
he any father to be proud of? Yes ; but all we know 
of Jonas is that Simon was his son. What was his 
mother's descent ? Nobody can tell ; it was left to 
after years for visionary tradition to give her the name 
of Johanna. Had he a wife ? One evangelist says he 
had a mother-in-law cured of a fever by miracle ; and 
an apostle adds that he " led about " a sister, a wife. 
Had he daughters ? Artists explain some singular 
pictures by repeating the romance of the palsied 
Petronilla. Had he any other children ? Many 
scholars still insist that Mark, the evangelist, was his 
offspring, and had the right to be called literally 
"Marcus, my son." 

Then again, when we leave the literature of legend, 
we enter the weird realm of architecture ; and we find 
the walls everywhere covered with stucco and with 

T* 



8 SIMON PETER: 

gold ; limned with frescoes and crusted with mosaics; 
forth from which the rugged face of this key-bearing 
ecclesiastic looks down upon the generations passing 
beneath. 

In some cathedrals, his baptism is pictured ; in 
others, that strange meeting with Jesus by the river. 
In stone, he is kneeling as he was when near the olives 
in Gethsemane ; in bronze, he is reaching out his 
finger like a modern pope ; on canvas, he is discovered 
hiding his face from the ineffable radiance, while Jesus 
Christ is on the mountain transfigured with Moses 
and Elias. At one time, this Galilean fisherman meets 
us at the first communion table ; and then he is sing- 
ing the hymn before they pass out. At another time, 
the same figure meets us in the presence of the maid- 
servants ; and now he is swearing to his terrible denial. 
Then we notice him outside the gate of a palace, and 
he is weeping bitterly over his folly in the light of a 
passover moon ; and before we leave the histories of 
that period of sorrow, we meet him on the shore of 
Gennesaret, beside another fire of coals, where Im- 
manuel is putting the question which has come down 
the ages to each one of us, " Lovest thou Me ? " At 
the last, in solemn shadows of life's evening, he ap- 
pears alone, on the cross, head downwards, crucified 
with his feet in the air. " Happy man," says fanciful 
Chrysostom, " to be set in the readiest posture of 
travel from earth into heaven ! " 

Thus constantly we recognize that face and form, 
till we begin to know him from all the myriad saints 
and martyrs. He really becomes so identified with 



A MISUNDERSTOOD DISCIPLE. 9 

Gothic arches and clerestory windows in forests of 
stone, that almost in an elm-grove men catch them- 
selves looking upwards for a possible glimpse of his 
head among the lines of crossing branches or the 
shimmer of sunshine in the leaves. 

Still, it is most likely that the common people read 
the history of Simon Peter in the gospels rather for 
its great human features and display of new life in 
Jesus Christ. He is thoroughly a man. For good 
or for ill he is Simon, son of Jonas, from beginning to 
end. Christ rebukes him, and Paul censures him. 
Yet, in personal characteristics, Peter continues un- 
altered and unalterable. He did fall terribly many 
times ; but we feel that he rose again in such a radical 
form of penitence and contrition that he deserves in- 
stantly to have one more chance ; and we hurry to 
him with a return of regard. Such a man's battles 
are our battles. The human mistakes he made are 
those that we need to be warned against. 

There is no one of all this disciple's failings that 
is away from our reach ; our exposures are perilously 
like his. So a quick sort of sympathy springs up be- 
tween us. Our sensibilities, in certain moods of 
self-searching, actually welcome the guidance of his 
experience. We are not offended by the verses of 
that hymn which makes each of us enter a like con- 
fession whenever we sing it : 

"Jesus, let thy pitying eye call back a wandering sheep ; 
False to thee, like Peter, I would fain like Peter weep ! 
Let me be by grace restored ; on me be all long-suffering shown ; 
Turn, and look upon me, Lord ! and break my heart of stone." 



10 SIMON PETER: 

Such a life must be worth studying, with a pains- 
taking and detailed canvass of all its particulars. But 
the whole force of our instruction from it will turn 
upon the power we have to transfer a series of con- 
flicts and triumphs to our own experience. We must 
identify him with ourselves ; we must, therefore, con- 
strain our imaginations to look upon him as an every- 
day man. Then, when we realize the mighty meaning 
of his mission, we shall understand him. 

It is no purpose of the writer of these pages to 
deny that Simon Peter received a sort of headship 
among the disciples ; there was a specific work to 
which Jesus called him in the establishment of the 
visible church. By nature he was a leader of his 
kind. The age he lived in was one of exciting out- 
look and eager expectancy. His race is historic for 
its incarnate enthusiasm and heroic adventure. Rightly 
has the Jew been called by Tholuck, " The Man of a 
Future." Everything in Israelitish annals used to 
appear waiting for a coming something to complete it. 
Thus Simon leaped into his place, like an athlete 
springing into an arena, with a full consciousness of a 
work to be done, and a hope to be caught from it. 
Our divine Lord recognized the efficiency he wished 
in this man, and commissioned him at once for the 
fashioning of an organic body of believers on the earth 
which should live through the ages. 

The one turning-point of Simon Peter's biography, 
on the instant of which all the rest hinges, is that at 
which we first meet his face, when Andrew, his brother, 
brings him to Jesus. Patriotic aspiration, personal 



A MISUNDERSTOOD DISCIPLE. II 

enthusiasm, religious traditions of a matchless past, 
all find their fulfilment. The disclosure of the Mes- 
siah in Jesus pervades the entire being of this Gal- 
ilean fisherman ; it sways his religion from Judaism 
to Christianity ; it fixes his future career, and governs 
his life. 

It must be this alone which explains the conduct 
of our Lord when he chose such a man for so exalted 
a place, with so slight a preparation. Looking down 
through even the next three years — time of mighty 
meaning and vast import to the world — surely he 
foresaw, in divine wisdom, how flexible Peter's faith 
was to be ; how scandalously unsteady his course 
would, for a while, prove. He understood, even while 
Andrew stood there, introducing this strange brother, 
that the near future would disclose all manner of weak- 
ness in him. Simon was really going to be no Cephas 
at all for many a long day ; there was, at the present 
moment, nothing of the rock in him but its roughness 
— except, perhaps, its capability of hardening under 
exposures of extraordinary, but salutary discipline. 

Can we doubt, moreover, that Jesus perceived in 
the distance the great shadow of the denial, and all 
the attendant gloom of defection in the early church ? 
No doubt, also, he foresaw the perverse dissimulation 
at Antioch, of which Peter would be so notoriously 
guilty that even Paul would withstand him to the 
face as one to be blamed. We may imagine that 
Jesus knew all the miserable folly which would follow 
the bestowal of that new name he was giving to this 
son of Jonas ; how a hierarchy of self-seekers would 



12 SIMON PETER: 

take it up, and fashion out of it a figment of popish 
successions; how primacy and prelacy would stub- 
bornly contend over a narrow difference between the 
genders of petros and petra, all along down the lonely 
ages. 

Yet our Lord Jesus did choose and call to himself 
this man ; advanced him to a position of authority, 
and laid on him his supreme charge. From all which 
it must seem clear to us in these days, that, while he 
is to be accepted as available, he cannot be pro- 
nounced altogether infallible; he may serve well as 
an organizer, but he makes poor show as a pope. 

It is evident that we shall never understand this sin- 
gular disciple until we ascertain the purpose for which 
the providence of God selected him. We say that 
helpful men must carefully be looked up. In the 
classic story Diogenes had melancholy work at that 
task. The Scripture expression is "raised up." We 
are told that the Lord " raised up " Othniel ; he " raised 
up " Moses ; he "raised up" David ; it is even said that 
he "raised up" Pharaoh. Hence, the disclosure is 
beyond any contradiction, as a settled principle in the 
divine government : God is wont to leave nothing 
to accident. There never is any good for any age in 
waiting for the coming man to arrive. When the 
Lord is ready for his presence, he will summon him 
to the lead. And so far in the annals of the human 
race, in every great exigency of history, the coming 
man was, after all the searching, found to have been 
on the ground the whole time, only nobody knew it. 

God's choice is all that can be needed to render 



A MISUNDERSTOOD DISCIPLE. 1 3 

the most unremarkable individual instantly eminent. 
Divine wisdom deliberately selected these humble 
but trustworthy witnesses of the Messiah's mission and 
work, and, in their mature middle life, hurried them 
startlingly out into public notice. They were actually 
"raised up." The Evangelists count them as in no 
wise worthy of their pens until they have gained the 
dignity of a recognition from Immanuel, the Saviour 
of the world. But the instant they became his fol- 
lowers, the swift record began to trace the particulars 
of their speech and action. As they held up the 
torch of truth through the prominent years of their 
evangelical service, and waved it widely, so that all 
darkened men should see the face of Jesus, they could 
not help but that their own countenances should be 
unconsciously brilliant with the very light which their 
fidelity and enthusiasm flashed around him. 

Thus, then, we conclude that the only key of ex- 
planation which will fit the wards of such a historic 
mystery as that represented in the career of Simon 
Peter — to some a mere fisherman, and to others a 
mere prelate — is found in the call God gave him, the 
times he lived in, and the special work that he was 
raised up to do. This disciple will always be misun- 
derstood, and will never be registered for what he 
really was, until his biography is patiently and affec- 
tionately studied as a harmonious whole. " Blessed 
is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to ap- 
proach unto thee." And the man whom Christ chose 
for his disciple will be estimated wisely and fairly only 
when the result of the choice is made known. 



CHAPTER II. 

SIMON'S PARENTAGE AND HOME. 

On the western side of the Sea of Tiberias, around 
which little inland sheet of water are gathered so many 
interesting and instructive memories, once stood a 
quiet village called Bethsaida, which name in the 
Syriac dialect signified " Fishing town." Close down 
upon the beach, it must have been situated at no great 
distance, in a straight line, from Capernaum, some- 
where about the middle of the angular bend bounding 
the northwestern shore. This was a different place 
from that beside which our Lord performed the mira- 
cle of feeding the five thousand, though bearing the 
same designation. Of this last, the town where the 
famous wonder was wrought, even now there remain 
some few lonely fragments of ruins. But of that 
Bethsaida in which Jesus Christ found his " Man," no 
vestiges at all can be discovered. It is mentioned 
in the Scripture narrative as " Bethsaida of Galilee," 
most likely to distinguish it from the other, to which 
in subsequent years was given the name of " Julias" 
when Philip the Tetrarch rebuilt it and re-adorned it 
for his official residence. Both are gone, but the 
poorest vanished first. And in calm unconsciousness 
of its secret, the small sea shines on and tells the trav- 
eler no tales of its former years; it was there before 
the villages arose, and it remains there now alone. 

It is possible for a spot, therefore, to slip off from 
a map, and yet cling tenaciously in history. For the 



HIS PARENTAGE AND HOME. 1 5 

remembrance of this little, lost town is imperisha- 
ble, from the fact that here, within its narrow pre- 
cincts, were reared five of the twelve men whom our 
Lord raised up to be his chosen disciples, and com- 
missioned as his successors in establishing the New 
Testament church. These five were Simon Peter and 
Andrew, James, John, and Philip. 

The early name by which Peter was known was 
Simon or Simeon, and his father's name was Jonas or 
John. The affix which we sometimes find in the 
Gospels, Simon Bar-Jona, comes from this. Bar- 
Jona means Son of Jonas or John, just as Bartimeus 
means Son of Timseus. This was one of the ordinary 
ways of distinguishing any individual in those times. 
When there might happen to be two bearing a like 
name the name of his father was joined to his own. 
Andrew, who was the brother of Simon, was of course 
a Bar-Jona too, John's son, as we phrase it. And 
that must be what Dr. Hamilton is to be understood 
as saying, when he casually mentions these two fish- 
ermen of Bethsaida as " the two celebrated Johnsons 
of Fishing- town. " 

Both of these men, Andrew and Simon Peter, be- 
come measurably conspicuous at last, but in the 
beginning of their career they advance abruptly into 
the inspired story, unheralded, undescribed in appear- 
ance, unknown as to antecedents. We meet them 
quite in the maturity of life ; of their youthful biog- 
raphy there is told us almost nothing. There was 
nobody to keep the simple annals of that obscure 
hamlet, if indeed it had ever happened to have any. 



1 6 SIMON PETER: 

These villagers present themselves first far away from 
their home. Simon has no more extensive intro- 
duction than his brother can give him ; and it chances 
in this case that we are less acquainted with Andrew, 
whom we conjecture to be the elder of the two, than 
with the younger. ' The fact is, they both owe the 
celebrity they attained to the extraordinary com- 
pany they afterwards fell into, and the illustrious 
companionship they shared with the world's Redeem- 
er. They are luminous because they are lit. It is 
most fitting, therefore, that each of them in turn 
should come before our eyes standing in the full light 
of Jesus Christ as he enters upon his public ministry. 

It is not possible that a biographer of such a man 
as Simon Peter should proceed in the ordinary way 
and relate the signs of early genius he displayed, or 
gather together floating traditions of the neighborhood 
to show his precocity or his undeveloped gifts. 
Whatever can be told has found its way into one or 
another of the evangelical histories, and will event- 
ually find its place in our recitals. But what is more 
to our immediate purpose is the fact that whatever he 
came to be ultimately grew out of the design for 
which he was " raised up." 

" I have created seven seas, saith the Lord, but out 
of them all I have chosen none but the Sea of Gen- 
nesaret": so the admiring rabbins tell us in the 
Talmud. Yet most travelers now would omit pan- 
egyrics of poetical description, and confine their 
thoughts to the wondrously noble associations of the 
scenes around. For in no respect could that rather 



HIS PARENTAGE AND HOME. IJ 

dull sheet of water be compared favorably with Lago 
di Como, with Loch Katrine, or with Lake George. 

Perhaps a tamer impression is made because of the 
absence of the ancient population, on the one hand, 
or of the want of sylvan solitudes on the other. For 
the suggestion at the present time is neither that of 
rural picturesqueness nor of artificial beauty. An 
air of desolation and barrenness is over all the land- 
scape. An uneasy sense of pensiveness bars the 
enjoyment which one might possibly feel elsewhere ; 
for the remembrance of a vanished past keeps rising, 
the vision of a lost opportunity and a violent retribu- 
tion. 

Some quiet shadows lie along the ridges of rock, 
but no huge or daring precipices break their lines. 
We discern no colossal or pinnacled mountains nearer 
than Lebanon. There are no solemnities of caverns 
or glooms of ravines in the uninteresting shores. The 
verdureless hills are sterile, but their bleaknesses are 
not extensive enough to be grand ; they are steep, 
but they could not be considered massive. And 
with all the brightness of this lake, at its loveliest sea- 
son, many tourists find themselves the rather surprised 
than pleased. Something is lacking. The cities are 
needed for a sort of answer to an inarticulate ques- 
tion. Nine towns used to light up these shores with a 
human presence of thrift. Then there were villas and 
palaces, baths and theaters, standing for coolness so 
close down upon the beach that their white walls 
shone reflected in the water. Contrasted with the 
wild and melancholy grandeur of Southern Palestine, 



1 8 SIMON TETER: 

this scenery here at the north is full of an exhilara- 
ting cheer of sweet sunshine. If that be fitly called 
the Dead Sea, this is certainly the Life Sea — only the 
life is gone. 

The dimensions of Lake Gennesaret are insignifi- 
cant It is only about six miles wide where the water 
is broadest, and not far from thirteen miles long. 
And so pure and clear is the summer atmosphere 
around it that it appears much smaller than it realty 
is. To a scant strip of territory close by the northern 
bend, at which the Jordan flows in, perhaps four 
miles by three in extent, was attached the name of the 
"Land of Gennesaret." Into this area in ancient 
times was crowded the lazy and luxurious life of the 
dissolute nobles of degenerate Israel. For, during 
the years while Simon Peter was a boy, much of the 
fashion of Herod's iniquitous court found here its 
worst resort. 

Whether this lake took its name from the shore, 
or the shore from the lake, is not certain. The word 
is said to mean "a harp" — perhaps in allusion to the 
figure of the sheet of water. Some declare that it 
comes from two other words signifying "Valley of 
Flowers:" and then it has been rendered also, "The 
Gardens of the Chief." Very appropriate this last 
designation : for the historic day has been when that 
exquisite plain covered with its rich verdure, shad- 
owed with towering palms and waving oleanders, 
variegated with vines and pomegranates, with groves 
of oranges and copses of tamarisks here and there, 
vocal in each early morning with the songs of a 



HIS PARENTAGE AND HOME. 19 

myriad of brilliant birds — was one of the most beauti- 
ful paradises of the princes of Naphtali. The fertility" 
of this strip of soil, lying near the junction of the 
Jordan with the lake, rendered it unusually prolific of all 
sorts of agricultural products ; and the depression of 
the valley, so characteristic clear down to its vast 
depth in the neighborhood of Jericho, offered an 
almost tropical climate for some fruits, flowers, and 
grains that the uplands did not furnish. Then, too, 
the lake was stocked with fish from time immemorial, 
as it is now, especially where the river makes its 
rich deposits from the country above. That in so 
close a proximity two Bethsaidas should have existed, 
the very name of which — "Fishing-town" — indicates 
the staple of their trade and industry, shows the source 
of prosperity and importance of the occupation pur- 
sued by Jonas and Zebedee. 

Nor, if the accounts of those early times are to be 
trusted, was the commerce of this part of Galilee 
to be despised. Damascus and Babylon, each a 
large metropolis of luxury, poured forth their wares 
into a series of bazaars all along the shores of the Sea 
of Tiberias. On the western side were hot springs for 
bathing ; and these added not a little to the attrac- 
tions of the vicinity, to the crowds of people who 
came swarming in the autumn months to this inland 
seashore on their way into Italy. 

The moment we conceive of these slopes on every 
quarter as covered with towns, and populous with 
country residences — and then picture the hundreds of 
hardy seamen gliding at all hours of the day or night 



20 SIMON PETER: 

out or in, going or returning — the yards for building 
the boats ringing with the sounds of the mallets — the 
barges of pleasure furling their white canvas, scudding 
before the refreshing winds from the hills toward 
Lebanon, gay with the garments of the proud parties 
of fashion and nobility they were wont to carry — the 
walks alongside bright with a profusion of beautiful 
chariots drawn by horses from Arabia in caparisons 
of silver and gold — the paths near the water glittering 
with a score of markets where the fabrics of the far 
Orient vied with the coarser but (to the quiet towns- 
men) the more attractive show, a confused mingling 
of nets and sails and tackling, with shawls and silks 
upon the same counter competing for purchasers 
among the rich and the poor — the entire circle of the 
lake excited with life — then we begin to understand 
that we have assuredly been much mistaken hither- 
to, if we have been in the habit of supposing that the 
disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ were brought 
up in an out-of-the-way neighborhood, away from 
the world, in the ignorance and seclusion of the small 
hamlet where they learned only to handle fishing- 
nets and wield oars. They were the lower class of 
inhabitants, it is true ; it is likely that the aristocratic 
people had only a supercilious notion of them — as 
visitors at modern watering-places now have of those 
who work to supply their tables. But it would be far 
from right to suppose they lived in seclusion and still- 
ness. 

Right within sight was Capernaum — of which indeed 
Bcthsaida was almost a suburb. The little town of 



HIS PARENTAGE AND HOME. 21 

El-Tabijah, that still lingers to mark the spot where 
Simon's early home was located, has yet the foun- 
tains and the indolent mill-wheels working near the 
beach, very much as the fisher-boy must have heard 
them groaning and splashing when they (or their an- 
cestor-wheels like them) drove the force for the tan- 
neries and potteries that supplied the simple wants 
of those who lived their lives there. 

On the same western side, only a short distance 
further, was Tiberias ; and he who had seen Tiberias, 
as it was then, had an inspiring notion of what 
the vast world must be. Simon would have visited 
the place a hundred times. It stood hardly more 
than five or six miles from his common fishing-ground ; 
he could see the glimmer of the gilded roof with 
which Herod had covered his palace, every morning 
when he came in from his toil and the sun climbed 
over the slight hills of Gadara. No matter into what 
market these fishermen went to sell their spoils, they 
met that great rushing world face to face which 
Christianity was to contend with and subdue. 

The Roman race had interjected themselves and 
their manners into Palestine, and especially into Galilee. 
The Jews kept the eminent lead as yet. They held 
the land ; they cultivated the olive-trees and trained 
the vines; they controlled the arts of industry. But 
the country was crowded with immigrants, and 
crossed with caravans. Foreigners kept coming 
from India and Persia, wearing curious dresses and 
having beautiful embroideries to sell. Light-clad, 
turban-crowned merchants appeared everywhere, 



22 SIMON PETER: 

offering spices from far Arabia, with unguents in 
alabaster boxes, and cosmetics for ladies' toilets. 
There were to be found constantly Alexandrians and 
a motley crowd of Greeks. All the world urged its 
way into this open province, from which the imperial 
power had forced fabulous tribute of wealth. Pales- 
tine became a sort of gathering-place for an indes- 
cribable horde of people whose principles were easy, 
whose errands were gain, and whose motive was 
anything for an adventure. 

The Italian conquerors brought mixed customs 
along; they did not leave behind them so much as 
their vices. They had their gladiatorial shows, their 
chariot- races, their slaves and their pimps. In com- 
mon with all. the rest of the Gentile world, they 
spoke their own language, wore their own fashions 
of clothing, set up the temples of their own gods. 
The new edifices they erected for worship and for 
games brought likewise to the shores of the lake 
of Gennesaret a fresh increase of barbarian inhabi- 
tants; for the fiat went forth from the omnipotent 
fashion of the day that nobody could venture to 
build a hippodrome, a bath, or a shrine, except an 
artist from Athens drew the model, and cunning 
workmen from Macedonia finished the adornments 
in bronze and silver and gold. 

So the streets in all the towns were filled with 
people from every name and nation. And among them 
always roamed the wild sons of Ishmael, the Bedouin 
children of the desert, coming when the ripened har- 
vests gave them invitation to steal, pasturing their 



HIS PARENTAGE AND HOME. 23 

slow herds where the grain stood the tallest, pitching 
their tents upon any man's acres as if they were 
lords of the soil, owning fealty alone to the strongest 
sword that chastised them, obeying neither a Jewish 
mandate nor a Roman, and gliding out of reach with 
a signal quicker than a shadow, leaving desolation 
wilder than a scourge. 

It is not necessary to say, therefore, that those five 
fishermen, whom our Lord chose for his apostles 
among the rest, were a poor, illiterate set of people, 
without knowledge of the world ; for indeed they had 
a chance to learn much of it, though they were 
forty years in Galilee only. This boy Simon with 
his brother Andrew, as well as John with his brother 
James, may have been from what we call a low rank 
in society, but not from the lowest. There appears 
to have been some measure of consideration and 
wealth belonging to both families, first and last. 



CHAPTER III. 

BOYHOOD IN GENNESARET. 

That period of .life through which human beings 
pass between the ages of ten and twenty is generally- 
understood as fixing the character of much of that 
which remains. We are forced to trace in the biog- 
raphy of the Apostle of the Circumcision influences 
of his early training that in the time of it must have 
been altogether unappreciated by himself. We 
must endeavor therefore to form full acquaintance 
with the real surroundings of his childhood. His 
home, insignificant as it was, was situated precisely 
where the hurry and bustle of Galilean life were at 
their highest; and there is reason to suppose that his 
parents had some severe struggles with a nature so 
imaginative and impulsive, before they brought it 
always into calm obedience. 

Young Simon, rough fisher-boy that he was, grew 
familiar with every scene around the northern end 
of the Sea of Galilee. He found an easy market 
for all his daily gains from the night-fishing. Those 
fashionable people may have learned to know the 
spirited lad, who came up regularly with his boat, and 
in an amiable sort of vanity beached it with a flourish 
of skill at the entrance of their villas, while his father 
Jonas brought out the shining mullet for their luxu- 
rious food — this boy with the keen eyes looking out 
from under his small white cap, his olive-colored 
arms thrust forth from the brown-striped loose coat, 



BOYHOOD IN GENNESARET. 25 

so that he might lay hold of the oars or drop the 
sail suddenly at the word of command. There must 
have been a kind of half-swagger in his manner even 
then, for this good creature always kept a self-con- 
sciousness, no matter what motions he made. 

It is only by considering Simon son of Jonas as 
subject to the same regimen as other Jewish lads of 
the period, that we arrive at any conclusion concern- 
ing his actual life during his youth. The age of 
twelve years was one of singular importance to all 
boys in that methodical nation. The Jewish annals 
assert that this was the time when Solomon made 
the extraordinary choice of wisdom that placed him 
at the head of the learned — when Samuel was called 
publicly forward by the voice of Jehovah at Shiloh 
— when Moses threw in his lot with the people of 
God, and forsook the home offered to him by Pha- 
raoh's daughter — a time always to be observed. 

At this age, so we learn from the Rabbins, any 
son of devout parents ought to be, and generally 
was, apprenticed to some occupation which would 
bring him respectable support. The solemn injunc- 
tion was, "He that does not teach his child a trade 
brings him up to be a thief. " These lads became 
now, also, "sons of the law," and were obliged to 
observe the fasts and keep the feasts of their nation. 
About this time, too, they began to wear the small 
phylacteries on their foreheads — strips of parchment 
with sentences lettered upon them from the precepts 
of Moses. They were now treated with a sort of 
consideration, as if they were little men. 



26 SIMON peter: 

As a reason for this, we are told by one of the 
Hebrew sages that, until he reached twelve years of 
age, no young lad possessed anything more than a 
mere inspiration of animal life. But at that period, 
or thereabouts, he received an intelligent spirit, which, 
if he lived virtuously afterward, would at twenty years 
old be certain to develop into the reasonable soul 
of a man ! 

There were in those days schools in connection 
with each synagogue. Perhaps Bethsaida was not a 
town large enough for either ; but if so, Capernaum 
was close at hand. The Hebrews made great account 
of education in the Scriptures. And we must remem- 
ber that a fair amount of learning was received when 
a child had committed an ordinary Book of Moses 
to heart. For the Scriptures were their annals of 
history, their theology, their legislation, their moral 
enactments, and their literature, all things in one. 
We conceive of those quiet families in Gennesaret 
very favorably in this respect. Simon's father Jonas 
and his mother — of whom we know only a tradition 
that her name was Johanna — together with John's 
parents Zebedee and Salome, no doubt were devout 
and godly people. When they sang the ancient 
Psalms, they doubtless sought to obey the admo- 
nitions implied in them. They passed along the 
truths they received, ''showing to the generation to 
come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and 
his wonderful works that he hath done. For he estab- 
lished a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in 
Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they 



BOYHOOD IN GENNESARET. 2 J 

should make them known to their children : that the 
generation to come might know them, even the chil- 
dren which should be born : who should arise and de- 
clare them to their children : that they might set- 
their hope in God, ' and not forget the works of God, 
v but keep his commandments." 

To one who has visited the modern schools in 
the East, there will be needed now no suggestion. as 
to the manner in which this Simon son of Jonas was 
kept at work in his boyhood. - According to 
Israelitish custom and rule, a lad should study the 
Bible at the age of five, though he might not attend 
public school till he was six ; at ten years old, he 
might take up the Mishna ; and at fifteen, he ought 
to begin on the Talmud/ From twenty to forty 
pupils are committed to one master. They all oc- 
cupy a single room, sitting upon mats around 
against the walls, and facing the teacher. The 
method of instruction is oral, but boys are allowed 
to have tablets somewhat like slates, upon which 
they write the lessons with chalk pencils to assist 
their memory. The main work is done in concert. 
A sentence is read by the pedagogue; and then the 
scholars say it over after him — all together with a 
shout — and they usually accompany the vocifera- 
tion with an awkward rocking backwards and for- 
wards of their bodies on their heels, beating time to 
the iterations. 

The Jews always were very particular about these 
educational matters. When Josephus argued against 
Apion, he said truly, "Our principal care of all is 



28 SIMON peter: 

to educate our children." Even the Talmud laid it 
down as one of its wisest precepts, "the world is pre- 
served by the breath of the children in the schools." 

So long have we been accustomed to attach a 
semi-mythical existence and character to the actual 
men and women and children mentioned in the Bible, 
that it may not be easy at first to recognize the picture 
of Jonas' son in a scene like this. But in all proba- 
bility Simon's lot was similar to that of others then — a 
lot much the same as that of fisher-boys in Galilee 
now, as it may be watched any time in the town of 
Tiberias. He lived just as little boys live every- 
where in the East, a sort of vagabond and untidy life 
until they reach an age which fits them for service- 
ableness in doors or out; then usually something is 
found for all human beings to do. 

A very commonplace sentiment often becomes 
dignified when ingeniously wrought into verse : so 
Wordsworth has been credited with originality in the 
saying that "the child is father of the man." Judging 
from his manifestations afterwards, this young Simon 
must have been a fidgety, restless scholar at his tasks, 
perhaps insubordinate on occasion ; a daring boy 
and combative ; frequently impetuous and head- 
strong ; brave, when only rocks and waves and squalls 
of wind beset him ; pusillanimous, when the threats 
of a bigger lad frightened him ; curiously inquisitive 
in watching interesting foreigners, and never bashful 
in questions when he wanted to know. 

But just as he passed from ten to twelve years of 
age, there happened a series of events which must 



BOYHOOD IN GENNESARET. 29 

have made some impression over all Palestine, and 
which certainly controlled his whole career. 

For then it was reported widely among the vil- 
lages that down in Bethlehem some shepherds tending 
their flocks out upon the hillside in the night had 
heard a wonderful song from a choir of angel voices 
overhead, announcing that the MESSIAH — so long 
and passionately waited for — so anxiously expected at 
any moment to arrive — had come indeed. The Babe 
was actually born who was to become manifest as 
the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. 

Two things acted together, in all likelihood, to ren- 
der the birth of Jesus Christ of far less account than 
it deserved to have in the estimation of people who 
resided in Northern Galilee at the time. They were 
under the impression that when the Messiah really 
did appear it would be in such a way as that the 
leaders of the nation would recognize and announce 
him immediately. Then the whole waiting world 
would hasten to his feet. Now, in the case of this 
Jesus — although everybody admitted that singular 
stories had been reported, and some believed that 
the angelic songs had in fact been heard, and ori- 
ental sages had rendered their homage and delivered 
their gifts — yet none of the Jewish rulers believed 
on him. 

Then, also, by reason of the violence of Herod, 
the child already was out of sight. He had dis- 
appeared with his parents in Egypt. All trace of 
him was lost. But the conduct of the king adver- 
tised the matter more than anything else. He was 



30 SIMON PETER : 

determined to lay his hands on the babe, and put an end 
to all peril from it, by his usual methods of deliver- 
ance from what alarmed or vexed him in the kingdom. 
He evidently imagined that those Magi, who came 
making inquiry, would be successful in finding the 
infant ; and he appears to have pledged them to let 
him know its whereabouts. But a divine suggestion 
in a dream sent them away in another direction. 

" Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked 
of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, 
and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, 
and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and 
under, according to the time which he had diligently 
inquired of the wise men." 

Such news might not of itself have aroused the 
interest of a young lad like Simon, who could hardly 
comprehend its vast meaning as yet. But accompa- 
nied by the awful tidings of extensive murders among 
innocent children, the story would make all Palestine 
recoil with a shudder. The tidings traveled with gath- 
ering exaggerations through Samaria into Galilee, 
until most likely when the report of the king's crime 
reached so excitable a center as Bethsaida it was 
magnified to a general massacre of extermination. A 
great wail of grief and consternation ran sounding 
through the entire country. 

" Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by 
Jeremy the prophet, saying, in Rama was there a 
voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great 
mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and 
would not be comforted, because they are not." 



BOYHOOD IN GENNESARET. 31 

Before long, however, the agitation subsided. For 
ere long, amid many confusions, Joseph and Mary 
quietly came home from Egypt across the desert 
sands, withdrawing to Nazareth with the Child of 
promise and hope. So mysterious time glided on. 

Nobody noticed that now a new era had begun. 
A hitherto unknown reckoning had come to draw its 
line across history. Somehow a mistake of four 
years was dropped at the start ; but the clock of the 
ages just then unperceivedly struck ANNO 
DOMINI I. 

It can be understood that any one who is watching 
a sunrise will be less likely to be found looking 
around upon the landscapes disclosed by it. Indeed, 
outlines would look dim and shadowy, and it is pos- 
sible that some objects might appear distorted. One 
who set himself about reducing to history the events 
of that first morning hour, would surely give most 
of his record to the glimmerings of the light and 
the flash of beautiful colors. The busy hum of 
awakening life would come into his description after- 
ward, if at all, and never with much clearness of 
detail, as having been a recollection rather than an 
experience — a necessity, not an enthusiasm. 

Such a suggestion keeps recurring to the student 
of Gospel annals during all his inquiries concerning 
that special period of the world in which our Lord 
Jesus Christ appeared. People who were sober 
enough to watch at all, were watching the rising of 
the Sun of Righteousness ; they had little heart to 
give to those minor circumstances that would be 



32 SIMON PETER : 

reckoned in an ordinary man's life — such as, for ex- 
ample, that of Simon, the son of Jonas. It disap- 
points us to find so slight references to him in these 
momentous years of revolution, combat, and change. 
But Avhat was one common man then ! 

We conjecture that he remained in Galilee all the 
time : that he took up fishing for a business — that his 
life, from the age of twelve to forty, was passed in 
the diligence of his rough calling. It would be natu- 
ral for us to draw imaginative pictures of his daily 
existence — to think of the gentle influences and en- 
joyments of nature around him ; the scenery of the 
lake ; the grand moonlight in the night ventures ; 
the brightness of the water when he rowed in to mar- 
ket in the morning ; the shadows on the afternoon 
hills ; and the beat of the mill-wheels working beside 
the torrents on the shore. 

To such as ourselves, Ave will say, all these sur- 
roundings appear full of interest, full almost of intox- 
icating delight, if our love of out-door life is keen. 
But many of us know that the majority of rural 
people, who reside in the constant companionship of 
a mountain range, a sparkling cascade, or a mirror- 
like lake, become familiar with everything we think 
we discover in the scenery ; and, unless some one 
possessed of a poetic temperament and a habit of close 
observation shall be found here and there, the 
whole neighborhood will be voted commonplace. A 
rustic sees only plain facts : 

" A primrose by a river's brim 

A yellow primrose is to him, 

And it is nothing more." 



EOYHOOD IN GENNESARET. 33 

A remark was once made by Niemeyer which was 
considered of so much significance that Dean Howson 
has seen fit to place it on the title-page of his Horcs 
PetrincB as a motto, and yet, it would seem as if 
anybody could make it, after moderate study : " In 
Peter is more of human nature than in any other of the 
apostles." And certainly those who are familiar with 
villages inhabited mostly by fishermen, would conjec- 
ture that the human nature there displayed would 
generally be of a quite commonplace type. We 
should not suppose that this boy of Jonas*, helping in 
all his daily, tasks to mend nets and man boats, as his 
father directed, would show anything more concern- 
ing his great future as a leader of the church than 
the rest of his toiling comrades in the same town. 
Perhaps, therefore, we have lost nothing because of 
the silence that surrounds him. He lived and grew 
older. 

And all this time, just a few miles from Bethsaida, 
the real Christ of God was "increasing in wisdom and 
stature, and in favor with God and man." No indi- 
cation comes to us that Simon ever saw or heard of 
that carpenter's Child over in Nazareth, during these 
tumultuous years. It fairly arrests our imagina- 
tion to think of a nearness so undiscovered and 
unconscious. Two lives were within a day's walk of 
each other — moving towards two distant crosses — on 
their way to a common triumph and trial : but Mary 
simply pondered mysterious sayings in her heart, and 
Simon was not yet Peter. 



CHAPTER IV. 

GOING UP TO JERUSALEM. 

It would not be far out of the way, if we should 
assert that the youthful Simon — perhaps with his 
parents, and in company with the other Bethsaida 
boys among the neighbors — went up to Passover for 
the first time within a year or two of the return of 
Joseph to Nazareth with Mary and her infant child 
Jesus. For the ancient requisition of the law was 
peremptory, and such truly religious people as 
Jonas and Zebedee would see it strictly obeyed: 

"Three times in a year shall all thy males appear 
before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall 
choose ; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the 
feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles : and 
they shall not appear before the Lord empty : every 
man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing 
of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee." 

It will be recollected that the silence of our 
Saviour's history is broken at one point, by the story 
of his visit to the city of his father's faith and wor- 
ship, and his conversation with the erudite doctors 
in the temple. This shows at least what the custom 
was in the families of the devout during all that 
period. 

But it must be admitted that no record whatso- 
ever is furnished of Simon's first feast, and we are left 
only to the conjecture that the ordinary course of 



GOING UP TO JERUSALEM. 35 

affairs would allow. We can assume it as a matter of 
course that his parents did what other parents were 
accustomed to do. And this helps us very much in 
ascertaining how full of opportunity these Galilean 
peasants' lives became, and how favorable for obtain- 
ing some knowledge of the world around them. 

No one can read the narratives of the Scriptures 
without noting the exceeding joyousness of these 
annual pilgrimages across the entire country. They 
are always mentioned with kindled feeling of exhila- 
ration. The amiable seclusion of the ordinary village 
life that many of the people lived, broken in upon by 
these periodic tours ; the devotional temper of their 
minds, given fresh indulgence ; the historic patriotism 
and pride of ancestral memories, stimulated by the 
sight and realization of so sacred a city as Jerusalem ; 
the social companionship necessary on the stages of 
their slow travel over hill and valley, when whole 
towns turned out together on the same pleasant 
errand ; even the matchless beauty of Palestine at the 
chosen seasons for the various festivals ; all these 
joined to make each recurrence of the journey an 
exciting anticipation and a long memory. 

This explains the presence of so enormous a multi- 
tude of men, women, and children, when the people 
were fed with miraculous loaves and fishes on the 
shores of Gennesaret ; they were doubtless pilgrims 
going up to the passover. This tells us in respect to 
the great crowds who cheered and sang when Jesus 
was riding into Jerusalem, how it happened that they 
were so enthusiastic and unsophisticated ; they were 



$6 simon peter: 

rural people, just come in from the country, and 
they let their artless enthusiasm have play. This 
helps in the proof that Jesus' disciples did not steal 
his body away the .night after the crucifixion ; the 
entire neighborhood was thronged almost to suffoca- 
tion v/ith strangers. 

It would take Jonas and Zebedee— piloting their 
families on " in the way their fathers trod" — two or 
three days at the least to reach Jerusalem from their 
quiet home beside the Sea of Galilee. Most likely 
their route would be along the valley of the Jordan on 
the eastern shore a part of the way, in the Greek 
country called Decapolis. The caravans would cross 
the stream at the border line of Galilee, so as to 
escape passing through the regions then rendered 
unsafe by the jealousy and positive malevolence of 
the Samaritans. Reaching the ford, in the neighbor- 
hood of Bethabara, they might easily pass over into 
Judsea close by Jericho, and thence climb up by the 
regular road leading to Bethany and the Mount of 
Olives. 

Those who have gazed upon that city of Jerusalem 
from the exquisite outlook offered in the tower of the 
little "Church of the Ascension" on the summit of 
Olivet, would wish that every one who loves the 
pathetic old town might catch his earliest glimpse of 
it from that direction. It is no mere modern custom 
which leads travelers to pitch their tents on that his- 
toric slope. The multitudes of Israelites in all the years 
thronging the vicinity have recognized the advanta- 
ges of the spot. So large must have been the num- 



GOING UP TO JERUSALEM. 37 

bers of pilgrims when all the tribes came up together, 
that it never was possible to find accommodation for 
man and beast within the walls. They used to rear 
for themselves arbors, or booths, made of branches 
interlaced and covered with loose matting. And 
some sheltered their families in light tents. All along 
the slopes of this beautiful hill they established their 
temporary residences for an enthusiastic week of con- 
tent and joy. The peace was welcome after the 
wearying journeys; the April air was full of soft- 
ness ; around them was spread a profusion of flowers 
and blossoms ; singing voices met voices singing on 
every side ; old friends clasped hands in renewal of 
affection ; and, more than all beside, there before the 
very door lay Jerusalem itself in the reality of its 
glory ! 

It is well understood that certain of the psalms, 
called the "Songs of Degrees," were composed for 
the use of the people coming up to these festivals. 
They kept repeating them with music on their journey, 
and they chanted them together on the temple steps. 
These helped to enliven their spirits as they plodded 
along in the sunshine or halted in the shade. But 
the full reach of their meaning was attained only 
when the tired families settled upon this final ridge 
and gazed upon the city of their hope and love. 

It seems almost impossible to communicate to 
another that enthusiasm of delight, and that suffusion 
of sensibility, with which even in our modern times 
one is inspired by this outlook. The emotion has no 
relation to an ordinary excitement of travel ; it is an 



38 simon peter: 

intense enjoyment peculiar and indescribable. The 
simple vision awakes one's whole soul, and stirs the 
very center of his being. 

Especially at this season, and in the evening hours ; 
for the passover always occurs at the full of the moon. 
In that almost supernatural illumination, when the 
sky is so clear and when the air is so pure as it is in 
that wonderful climate, the city lies plainly outlined, 
every tower and balcony and dome. For the bril- 
liancy of the night is nearly the same as that of the 
day. The roofs and roads, the trees and walls, are 
fairly silver with the white light. 

One may at last resolutely retire to the couch in 
his comfortable tent, making obsequious apology for 
closing his eyes on such a landscape those peerless 
evenings, that he is burdened with poor human 
fatigue, and exhausted sometimes even to pain. An 
ineffable hush over all the outside world invites to 
repose ; men and animals are alike still. Even the 
chattering group of his Arab attendants, whose faces 
just before he saw ruddy in the red gleam of the camp- 
fire, are now huddled indistinguishably together under 
their brown garments, silent in slumber. His eyes 
may be heavy, but his mind will disdain to rest. Then 
he will understand what the words mean, " I sleep, 
but my heart waketh." For the instant the snuffy 
candle is extinguished, and the passover moonlight 
streams in through the curtainless doorway — there it 
all is again ! There lingers undiminished that glory 
of ancient memory and song in serene shining. 

Nobody can be tame now. One will say, over and 



GOING UP TO JERUSALEM. 39 

over, the hundred and twenty-second psalm. He 
will be sure to ''pray for the peace of Jerusalem." 
He will claim for himself most honestly the promise, 
"They shall prosper that love thee." Then at the 
last, if he draws the folds of canvas, and closes out 
the moonlit spectacle, he will fall asleep, saying softly, 
even in his dreams : 

" Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within 
thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' 
sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because 
of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy 
good." 

In such feelings, so irresistible even to a chance 
Christian traveler, we are certain is found an expla- 
nation of those inspired verses which, when we read 
them now, seem almost extravagant. The earliest 
sight of this town and its sacred edifices — what must 
it have been to any devout Israelite ! No wonder he 
called Mount Zion his " chief joy." No wonder he 
lifted his hands to exclaim : 

" I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into 
the house of the Lord. 

"Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jeru- 
salem. 

" Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact to- 
gether : whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the 
Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks 
unto the name of the Lord. 

"For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones 
of the house of David. 

"Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, 



40 simon peter: 

is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of 
the great King." 

And in association it was more lovely still. All 
the glories of the splendid past, all the hopes of a 
radiant future, centered there. The history of David's 
kingdom, and the predictions of Messiah's advent, 
alike mentioned this matchless Capital. Some of the 
ancient Rabbins used to say: "He that never saw 
Jerusalem in its splendor, never saw a beautiful city ; 
and he that never saw the Temple, never saw the 
noblest fabric under the sun !" 

The dispositions of children are molded and the 
elements of their characters are fixed under pressure 
of such training as this. Young Simon's imagination 
would be kindled, his whole future would be swayed, 
by even a single visit with his parents to that capital of 
his nation at one of the great feasts. But we are to 
recollect that the experience was repeated three times 
a year through all of his opening manhood. One 
after another of the grand events of the illustrious his- 
tory would find its rehearsal. Jonas would be sure to 
point out the objects within stroke of his eye, and 
connect the Scripture narratives with them for a per- 
manent impression. 

For example: that curious structure which every 
one sees now in the valley of Jehoshaphat, bearing the 
name of "Absalom's Tomb," may not be, even though 
many still think it is, the very pillar which this son 
of David reared "in the King's Dale"; but most 
authorities are agreed that it was in existence, and 
that traditions of the people connected it with the 



GOING UP TO JERUSALEM. 41 

rebel's name, before Herod was dead. No doubt the 
boy received many an admonition with that forlorn 
stone for a text, and thus gained his lesson about the 
wickedness of a disobedient child. He may possibly 
have read aloud that story of the monarch's flight, 
when the ingrate pursued him : 

" And David said unto all his servants that were 
with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee ; for we 
shall not else escape from Absalom ; make speed to 
depart, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring evil 
upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the 
sword. 

"And all the country wept with a loud voice, and 
all the people passed over; the king also himself 
passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people 
passed over, toward the way of the wilderness. 

"And David went up by the ascent of Mount 
Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head cov- 
ered, and he went barefoot : and all the people that 
was with him covered every man his head, and they 
went up, weeping as they went up." 

Then the actual path of the mourning loyalists could 
be seen traced white along the hillside, from the east- 
ern gate to the summit where they sat. How 
strikingly the locality would fix in mind all the inci- 
dents of a historic fact like that! One of the promi- 
nent characteristics of Simon Peter's mind was his 
unusual aptitude for picturesque appreciation. We 
can readily understand that when he was an imagina- 
tive boy, his whole being would be absorbed by an 
object-lesson so intense, he would actually see the 



42 SIMON PETER: 

crownless monarch toiling up the hill, and the sorrow- 
ful nobles in his train. 

Nor was this the finest sight that old white path 
would suggest. Perhaps they would set the boy at 
reading one of the mysterious chapters of Ezekiel's 
prophecy. He may have been asking questions about 
the former Temple which once stood on this same 
sacred spot. Jonas would tell him that the mighty 
edifice of Solomon had in it five things which this 
temple lacked. And if Simon asked, in his natural 
curiosity, what became of the chief one of them, 
namely, that grand Shechinah light which used to 
shine upon the mercy-seat, surely this would be the 
place to give him his exact reply : 

"Then the glory of the Lord went up from the 
cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; 
and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court 
was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory. 

"Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the 
threshold of the house, and stood over the cher- 
ubim. 

" And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and 
mounted up from the earth in my sight; when they 
went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every 
one stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord's 
house ; and the glory of the God of Israel was over 
them above. 

" Then did the cherubim lift up^their wings and 
the wheels beside them ; and the glory of the God of 
Israel was over them above. 

"And the glory of the Lord went up from the 



GOING UP TO JERUSALEM. 43 

midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which 
is on the east side of the city." 

Here the saddened Jews found a reason for their 
shame ; for a figure like this could only signify an 
official and judicial departure of divine favor, because 
of their unworthiness. A most interesting legend is 
recorded in one of the Hebrew books, showing what 
was the popular belief at the time. It is stated that 
this Shechinah paused for a season on the threshold, 
as if loath to leave its resting-place between the cheru- 
bim, then it paused again near the door of the east 
gate, as if wishing to be hindered ; then at last it took 
its solemn way silently up the central path until it 
stood tranquilly gleaming on the ridge of the mount- 
ain. There it remained three years and a half, just 
to see whether the listless nation would be stirred up 
to repentance. And they said that a plaintive and 
affectionate voice would ever and anon come forth 
from the luminous cloud, calling, "Return unto me, 
O my sons, and I will surely return to you ! " Then 
finally it arose from the ground, and in the graphic 
language of the record, "went to its own place." 

With what sentiments of awe would the young 
Simon gaze forth upon such scenes ! There was the 
gate ; there was the path ; there was the mountain ! 
Perforce his mind would be taught and moved for- 
ever, as he remembered this prophecy and sat think- 
ing on that hill. At his very feet lay the sward once 
radiant with illumination from the symbol of his Cre- 
ator's glory, the mystery of Jehovah's light, passing 
away from mortal darkness, moving home to its rest! 



44 simon peter: 

There is no need of our tracing the story of such 
a Passover pilgrimage any further. Enough has 
been said to show how the histories and doctrines of 
that ancient faith were learned and taught in the 
experience of Simon, this son of Jonas from Bethsaida. 

He would now know how divine justice deals with 
human guilt, how divine mercy forgives a penitent 
soul, how divine goodness invariably welcomes a 
faithful service, how divine promises furnish food in 
the desert, how divine foresight sees the generations 
far off. And with this knowledge, what more would 
this young lad need, as the years passed along, and 
he remained in his father's routine of daily toil by 
the sea, to show him what we mean when we say, 
" God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable 
in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good- 
ness, and truth " ? 

Still, this is not all he would need. Something 
beyond such a mere notion of God's providence is 
demanded for salvation. Each soul must be made 
to understand the atonement provided for the redemp- 
tion of our race from the curse of God's broken law. 
And this the ceremonies of the great feast itself were 
intended to teach to all who participated in them. 
So it becomes a matter of absorbing interest for us 
to ascertain exactly what the Passover was in that 
period of history when Simon witnessed its celebra- 
tion first, and, if possible, to learn what were the 
lessons he would gain from it. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FOURTEENTH OF NISAN. 

We have imagined that the family of Jonas came 
up early in that twelfth year of young Simon's life, 
and were at Jerusalem in a good time to secure a 
favorable location upon the usually crowded slope of 
Mount Olivet. We have pictured their modest tent, 
with its fine outlook. But it is hardly to be supposed 
that this lad would remain under cover very much 
while such stirring events were abroad as the four- 
teenth day of Nisan was wont to bring to his people 
in the city of the great King. 

Let us understand that the Passover feast was by 
law fixed on the day which came fourteen days after 
the new moon of Abib, and the month Abib was 
made the first of the months, and so became the 
beginning of the year. The meaning of the word 
Abib is " ears of grain;" and the meaning of the 
word Zif, the name of the month which was reckoned 
next, is " blossoms." After the Babylonish captivity 
Abib seems to have yielded to Nisan as the term of 
designation, and so the date of the festival was known 
as the fourteenth of Nisan. This month very nearly 
coincided with our April, and Zif with our May; 
but, being governed by the phases of the moon, 
there would be some shifting of the periods, putting 
one year with another, as is the case with our modern 
dates of Easter or Good Friday. Thus we under- 
stand that these scenes of the Passover we are seek- 



46 SIMON- PETER : 

ing to describe were reproduced each season in the 
most comfortable and beautiful portion of the year. 
The nights were warm and dry, the moon was com- 
ing up to the full, the journeys were easy, the spring 
harvests waved in the fields, the blossoms shone, the 
birds kept singing. 

Out there on the hillside stands the wondering 
Simon. It is not always necessary to think of this 
boy as in an awkward costume. Children have 
their holiday dresses in Palestine as elsewhere. 
And we must seem to see a bright lad in his simple 
garment of light stuff, the substantial plainness of 
which is relieved by a high-colored scarf, or perhaps 
covered with a tunic of silk, his head wearing the 
small red fez, with its graceful tassel of dark fringe. 
Brisk with the exhilaration of each day's journey, he 
looks like a mere child of nature, as fresh and elastic 
as the flowers he treads among, and as free as the 
innumerable bluebirds which flash in and out through 
the hedges. 

It must not be forgotten that the ceremonies intro- 
ducing passover days were of such a character as 
powerfully to arrest the imagination of those simple- 
minded people who kept the annual feast. As soon 
as the full moon was announced, the Sanhedrin gave 
official notice to all the families patiently gathered 
around the sacred city. A messenger was sent to the 
Mount of Olives with a bundle of brushwood or straw, 
which he kindled into flame on the very summit. 
Meanwhile he flared a torch backwards and forwards 
through the air to make sure to "the watchers on other 



THE FOURTEENTH OF NISAN. 47 

hills that this was the true signal for the nation. 
Immediately, sentinels further away waved along this 
token of fire, and hurried to pile up heaps of stubble, 
or whatever was nearest to hand and fittest for a 
beacon, till the whole country was in a blaze of intel- 
ligence. How much a boy of twelve years would 
like that! 

And while the tent stood on the hillside at Jerusa- 
lem, there would keep coming in new companies of 
pilgrims. It was the custom, when it could be af- 
forded, for each caravan to enter Judaea preceded by 
a great bullock with gilded horns, and accompanied 
with music of trumpets and cymbals, which they fol- 
lowed with their voices. Hence the figure in the 
prophecy : "The redeemed of the Lord shall return, 
and come with singing unto Zion." 

We can picture the exhilaration there would be in 
this. Each hour's delay would awake some small 
anxiety concerning a belated neighbor. Kept back 
by rougher roads, or more distant journeys, or pos- 
sibly by the waning strength of some dear old man 
who wanted to come just once more, perhaps now 
and then a family would be behindhand; and then 
generous friends would be watching. Every new 
swell of instruments would bring the eager faces to the 
doors of the booths and tents. So there would be a 
lively fortnight while the moon was growing from its 
first thin crescent to its broad full face. 

Another thing must be borne in mind, or we shall 
grow confused. The forms for the celebration 
of the Passover were authoritatively fixed by the 
o 



48 simon peter: 

same command as that which established it. Un- 
doubtedly these were followed with careful fidelity 
during the period which preceded the great captiv- 
ity of the nation. As a matter of fact, we have the 
record of an observance of the feast the second year 
at Sinai. Then we have no more notice of it until the 
tribes are at Jericho, actually inside of the land of 
promise. The Jews themselves insist that this was 
the meaning of the divine command. Some of the 
minor arrangements must have been changed before 
Jesus' time. It is well enough to know, once for all, 
that it is the spirit and purpose of an ordinance which 
the Lord honors, not the mere form. When the 
remnant of the people came up from Babylon and 
were again settled in Canaan, a new ritual of observ- 
ances was fashioned for more than one of the yearly 
festivals. Certain conveniences of method and man- 
agement in the details of sacrifice were also tolerated, 
springing up out of the altered habits of the families 
when the temple was builded, and the tribes came to 
their rest from conquest. 

The ancient annalists enumerate these four partic- 
ulars as having been dropped when the later customs 
were adopted, (i) The eating of the lamb in differ- 
ent places— for it must now be killed in the sacred 
city of Jerusalem only; (2) The taking up of the 
victim four days previous to the sacrifice — for as the 
people would now in some cases have to come by 
long journeys into Judaea, not all of them could gain 
so much time for waiting; (3) The striking of the 
blood upon the doorposts of the dwellings — for now, 



THE FOURTEENTH OF NISAN. 49 

since the literal plague of Pharaoh was to be repeated 
no more, the symbol of deliverance from it might be 
considered as spiritualized ; (4) The partaking of 
the feast in haste — they now adopted the usual pos- 
ture of sitting or reclining in security and rest. Thus 
they professed to preserve the spirit of the ordinance 
while surrendering the form. 

The Jews began their days with the evening sun- 
set. Hence, Good Friday of that eventful week when 
our Lord was crucified, commenced with the ordinary 
ceremonies of Thursday night. At this time a 
solemn search was instituted in every dwelling for 
leaven — what we should recognize better by the 
common name of yeast. This diligent and punctili- 
ous examination went through the whole premises, 
entering every closet, opening every drawer, looking 
over every shelf in every cupboard, lest even the 
slightest particle of the forbidden thing should be 
missed. One member of the household bore a dish 
and brush, with which the tables and couches were an- 
xiously swept. All the small dust thus collected was 
put away under lock and key. Late after midnight — 
some say in the early forenoon of Friday — a fire was 
kindled out in the open air, and the dangerous 
fragments and crumbs of leavened bread were con- 
sumed. This custom was instituted in the earliest 
history of the ordinance : " In the first month, on the 
fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat un- 
leavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of 
the month at even. Seven days shall there be no 
leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth 



50 simon peter: 

that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off 
from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a 
stranger, or born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing 
leavened: in all your habitations shall ye eat un- 
leavened bread. Unleavened bread shall be eaten 
seven days ; and there shall no leavened bread be 
seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen 
with thee in all thy quarters. Seven days shall ye 
eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put 
away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever 
eateth leavened bread, from the first day until the 
seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel." 

Now what did this ceremony signify ? Leaven is 
a product of fermentation ; it is made by a sort of 
corruption ; and always, if continuing to work, it 
grows foul. Hence it was long ago chosen as the 
symbol of sin — corruption or wickedness of any kind 
or degree. To put away leaven was, under a figure, 
to put away sin. Hence Paul's language both ex- 
plains the type and applies the principle : " A little 
leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Purge out there- 
fore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye 
are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sac- 
rificed for us : therefore let us keep the feast, not 
with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and 
wickedness ; but with the unleavened bread of sincer- 
ity and truth." 

The Jewish doctors prescribed four degrees of prep- 
aration in this process. The first was what was called 
the expurgatio fermenti — the patient cleansing of all 
their household utensils, two or three days before the 



THE FOURTEENTH OF NISAN. 5 I 

Passover. Then the inquisitio fermenti — the search- 
ing after leaven throughout the dwelling, of which we 
already have spoken. Next came the conflagratio 
fermenti — the burning up of the leaven they had 
gathered. Then the execratio fermenti — the curs- 
ing of the leaven ; a sort of exorcism, the form of 
which was prescribed, and ran somewhat on this 
wise : 

" All manner of ferment, whether seen of me or 
not seen — all manner of ferment, whether cleansed of 
me or not cleansed — let it be scattered, annulled, and 
accounted as the dust of the earth!" 

The search for this accursed symbol of sin must be 
made with a lighted candle and in solemn silence by 
the head of the house. The Jewish expositors are 
accustomed to say that this is the meaning of the 
Lord's searching Jerusalem " with candles" for wicked 
men " settled on their lees," or, as the margin reads, 
"curded or thickened." 

At last the Passover day arrived ; and it is easy to 
see how a mind picturesque and imaginative, like 
Simon's, would be by this time all aroused and quick- 
ened into curiosity. About two o'clock, the trum- 
pets in the temple and along the steps sounded a 
great, magnificent blast, ringing from a thousand 
brazen mouths.' All around instantly came the 
answering peals from tent and booth and dwelling, 
as the stalwart men of Galilee and Judaea made the 
air quiver with their horns — as it were, the nation 
sending back the reply to their leaders, who sum- 
moned them to come unto God's service. 



52 SIMON TETER : 

Now every father of a family started for the temple 
enclosure, bearing a lamb in his arms. The vast 
multitudes poured along down from the hillsides, out 
of the houses, hurrying through the street. Four 
thousand or more of the Levites came out on the 
steps of that wonderful edifice, and commenced sing- 
ing the Songs of Degrees, in solemn and joyful 
strains of male voices, making the wide valley of 
Jehoshaphat echo with music, while the throngs on 
throngs hurried in. Think of an enthusiastic Jewish 
boy out on the Mount of Olives, looking off over an 
innumerable sea of heads like this! How the proces- 
sion would fill his whole soul with wonder! How the 
psalms would rise and swell on his ear across the valley ! 

For this night the evening service came on a little 
earlier than usual, for there was so much to be done. 
Three mighty blasts of the silver trumpets announced 
its conclusion ; and then the gates were barred 
against all entrance into the court of the priests while 
the work of killing the sacrificial victims took place. 
Each head of a family slew the animal he brought, 
cutting off the fat, which he gave to the officiating 
minister to burn after his departure. 

When any one division of the people had com- 
pleted its prescribed work, it yielded place to another; 
so the stream of men poured out again to their 
homes, whether located inside the city walls, or tem- 
porarily planted in the outskirts. And still that 
exhilarating song on the steps went on ; the Levites 
continued singing the Great Hallel — the psalms num- 
bered in our Bibles from the hundred and thirteenth 



THE FOURTEENTH OF NISAN. 53 

to the hundred and eighteenth — and the sound of 
such cultivated voices in chorus must have been sur- 
passingly full of sublimity and inspiration. 

We must arrest the progress of our description 
here, and reserve for a new chapter the ceremonies 
of the Passover feast itself. Let us note, just now, 
the interesting coincidences of dates. A late English 
writer has been at some pains to collate passages of 
Scripture, and he concludes that the day of our 
Saviour's crucifixion was the anniversary, not only of 
the Exodus, but also of the promise to Abraham ; 
the day of the resurrection was the anniversary of the 
crossing of the Red Sea, and of the resting of the 
Ark on Mount Ararat ; Nisan, once the seventh of 
the twelve months, became the first month of the 
year ; the seventeenth of Nisan marks the emergence 
of the renewed earth out of the waters of the Flood, 
the march of God's redeemed people from the waves 
of the sea, and the rising of Jesus from the dead. 

It is not easy to say how much in detail this young 
son of Jonas may have acquired of knowledge con- 
cerning the grand anticipation and longing of his 
race for their Coming King. He certainly did not 
know the deep meaning of many of the symbols of 
atonement he saw that day, as we understand them 
now. It is pathetic to think how unconsciously he 
and his parents, and indeed his whole nation, passed 
the hours away, without having a single notion of 
what Mary had kept secret; that, behind him in 
Nazareth, in his mother's arms, lay the true Paschal 
Lamb, the world's Messiah, King David the Second. 



CHAPTER VI. 

SIMON'S FIRST PASSOVER. 

The forms employed in the celebration of the Pass- 
over are almost unchanged even in our day. Three 
thousand years already have passed away ; and still 
the habits of those strange people who to-day repre- 
sent the nation once chosen of God remain very much 
the same. No lamb has ever been sacrificed since 
the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed ; but the in- 
structions issued in the modern manuals of service 
suggest almost everything which used to be practised 
among the Jews in the middle ages, and even back 
as far as the time of our Lord. As to the decoration 
of the table on the morning of the fourteenth of 
Nisan, the following particulars have been prescribed 
for the faithful : 

" For the first two nights of the feast, the rules re- 
quire that three plates shall be placed on the table 
after the cloth is laid, in one of which three unleav- 
ened cakes shall be placed, in another the long bone 
of the shoulder of the lamb and an egg (both roasted 
on coals), in the third some lettuce and celery, or 
chervil and parsley ; a cup of vinegar or salt water; 
and, finally, a compound of apples, almonds, etc., 
worked up to the consistence of mortar. 

" Before each partaker of the passover is placed a 
glass or cup of wine, it being obligatory to drink four 
glasses of wine in commemoration of the four differ- 
ent expressions made use of in describing Israel's re- 



SIMON'S FIRST PASSOVER. . 55 

demption from Egypt, viz., ' And I brought out,' 
- and I delivered,' ' and I redeemed,' ' and I took.' ' 

A side note just here says : " On these nights it is 
customary to allow even the lowest Hebrew servant 
to sit at table during the ceremonial part ; for, as we 
were all equally alike in bondage, it is proper that 
we all return thanks to God for the redemption' ' 

All this is interesting, surely ; but the main need for 
us in our present story of Simon Peter is to ascertain 
precisely what he would be likely to see on the first 
celebration of this feast that he ever attended. A cu- 
rious liturgy has come down through the ages, quite 
unaltered ; one which the Rabbins were wont to use 
at the time when our Saviour was born ; it is likely 
that this was the form of celebration when the Beth- 
saida family arrived in the Holy City, bringing this 
lad with them. It will of itself bear rehearsing in de- 
tail for its mere picturesqueness ; but it will serve also 
to show how such boys learned of Christ. 

In our last chapter, we left Jonas among the rev- 
erent but packed crowd who were struggling in the 
temple-court where they had just killed their lambs, 
seeking his egress that he might join his circle of 
relatives for the devotional meal. As expeditiously 
now as possible, this paschal victim was brought in 
by the father of the household, and immediately 
placed (as was the custom) in a heated hole previously 
dug in the ground to receive it — a sort of oven in 
which a fire had been kindled. A spit of pome- 
granate wood was passed through it from one end to 
the other, and a second one of shorter length was also 
3* 



56 simon peter: 

thrust across from shoulder to shoulder. Thus the 
lamb would hang free over the coals till it was 
roasted for the eating. All the guests now put on 
their most beautiful garments, and the brightest lamps 
in the house were lit. 

When all things were ready for the table, and the 
company were reverently assembled, the attitude was 
assumed which most strikingly illustrated the changed 
condition of the people. The company did not stand 
with their loins girded for marching, but reclined on 
long couches ; the head towards the feast, the feet 
turned away from it. So we understand at once how 
the penitent woman at Simon's banquet could stand 
" behind " Jesus at his feet. This was the customary 
posture in eating ; and it was particularly prescribed 
for the Lord's Supper, in order to show that Israel 
was now at peace and rest. The Talmud commands 
this: "Because it is the manner of slaves to eat 
standing, therefore now they eat sitting and leaning 
as free men do, in memorial of their freedom." In- 
ded, it was forbidden to partake of the paschal lamb 
otherwise : " No, not the poorest in Israel may eat 
till he has sat down, leaning." The left elbow was 
placed on the table, and the head might rest upon 
that hand, thus intimate companions being neigh- 
bors on the couch might seem almost to be leaning 
on each other's bosom, or lying on each other's 
breast, as " the disciple whom Jesus loved " has re- 
lated. 

Then the official head of the household, or, at his 
invitation, the most eminent personage of the company 



SIMON S FIRST PASSOVER. 57 

present, lifting a cup of wine in his hand, began the 
ceremonies of the occasion with this joyous ascrip- 
tion of praise : 

" Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, the King of 
the universe, who hast created the fruit of the vine ! 
Blessed art thou, Jehovah our God, who hast chosen 
us from among all people, and exalted us from among 
all languages, and sanctified us with thy command- 
ments ! Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, the King 
of the universe, who hast preserved us alive and sus- 
tained us, and brought us to this season ! " 

The first cup of wine was then tasted by him, and 
afterwards all who were present followed his example. 
This was called the blessing of the wine. Some think 
it was precisely this which our divine Saviour did in 
the institution of the Lord's Supper, when " he took 
the cup and gave thanks, and said, Take this and di- 
vide it among yourselves." 

At the very beginning of the meal, water was 
brought in that all the guests might wash their 
hands. Then the master of ceremonies rising offered 
a prayer of general thanksgiving in these words : 

" Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, who hast 
sanctified us by thy commandments, and hast com- 
manded us concerning this washing of our hands ! 
Yea, thou hast chosen us above all nations. Thou 
hast given us thy holy festivals with joy and re- 
joicing !" 

Just here comes in the incident of our Lord's 
washing his disciples' feet. The expression, " supper 
being ended," is quite faulty as a rendering ; it should 



58 simon peter: 

be, " supper being on, or proceeding." No doubt 
our Saviour performed this menial act to teach the 
lesson of a profound humility, and at the same 
moment to show the significance of the symbol. It 
was as if he would say to his followers, " Be willing 
to stoop to any lowness of service to cleanse men's 
souls from sin." 

Then next to this, in the formula for the Passover, 
a small table was spread, having on it some bitter 
herbs and unleavened bread, with also a dish contain- 
ing a peculiar mixture composed of wine and fruit- 
cake, raisins and dates, worked into a sort of palatable 
sauce. At this moment likewise was brought in the 
body of the paschal lamb. The unleavened bread 
was merely a pile of thin wafers of the most meagre 
kind, mere cakes made out of flour and water, and 
pierced with holes in order that no possible fermen- 
tation could take place even in the swift process of 
baking they passed through. Then the master of 
ceremonies, rising, offered a brief prayer of general 
invocation, after which each of the company took of 
the bitter herbs a moderate portion ; this, dipping it 
in the sweet sauce as a sop, he ate, no guest being 
permitted to eat less than the size of an olive. Then 
the whole table was suddenly carried out of the room, 
and a plain cup of wine and water was set before the 
master and everyone at the service ; but of this for 
some little pause of time no one in the company was 
expected to taste. The object of such strange silence 
and mystery of delay seems to have been to pique 
the curiosity of younger members of the household, 



SIMON S FIRST PASSOVER. 59 

and invite them to ask what was the reason of it. 
It was a suggestion made by the words of Moses in 
the original institution of the festival : " And it shall 
come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, 
What mean ye by this service ? that ye shall say, It 
is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed 
over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, 
when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our 
houses." 

Hence, at this point in the administration, a young 
lad — usually the son of the master — came forward 
and put the question : 

" What do ye mean by such a service as this ?" 

Now it does not seem any unusual stretch of our 
imagination in this recital to suppose that the lad 
who performed this office, on the occasion we have 
been studying, was Simon himself. For who would 
be likelier than he, this bright boy in his gay gar- 
ments and with his inquisitive look ? And it aids very 
much in our inquiries as to the processes of his relig- 
ious education to find that he had such matchless 
opportunities of learning what he needed to know. 

A second cup of wine was now poured out, and 
then this same lad pressed for a somewhat more 
extensive explanation of the feast : 

" What mean ye by this service ? Wherefore is 
this night distinguished from all other nights; in what 
does it differ thus ? P'or on all other nights we wash 
but once, this night twice ; on all other nights we 
eat bread leavened or unleavened, this night unleav- 
ened only ; on all other nights we eat flesh 



60 simon peter: 

roasted or baked or boiled, this night roasted only ; 
on all other nights we eat of any herbs, this night of 
bitter herbs only; on all other nights we either re- 
cline or sit while we eat, this night we recline only." 

The father of the household then gravely arose 
and delivered an address. He rehearsed the history 
of Israel, showing God's deliverances in the nation's 
times of peril, especially dwelling upon the events of 
the Exodus, the wonders wrought in Egypt, and the 
destruction of Pharaoh. If there were many boys 
and girls present, the speaker invariably added some- 
thing like a direct admonition suited to their under- 
standing : 

" Children, we were all servants, like this maid- 
servant, or like this man-servant, that waiteth ; and 
on this night, many years ago, the Lord redeemed us 
and brought to us liberty from our bondage." 

Then the table was brought back into the cham- 
ber once more, and a second cup of wine was poured 
out. The president of the feast, holding up the 
roasted lamb, continued his discourse : " This is the 
Passover which we eat in respect that the Lord 
passed over the houses of our fathers in the land of 
Egypt." In like manner he held up the horehound, 
the wild lettuce, and the coriander; the use of these 
he explained also : " These are the bitter herbs which 
we eat in remembrance that the Egyptians made the 
lives of our fathers bitter in bondage." When the 
unleavened bread was reached, he dwelt upon the 
necessity that each one should try to make the rem- 
iniscence personal and religious : " This is the un- 



SIMON'S FIRST PASSOVER. 6l 

leavened bread which we eat in remembrance that 
our fathers' dough had not had time to be leavened 
before the Lord showed himself for their redemption 
from the hand of the "enemy." 

This discourse ended — and it certainly shows just 
where our Saviour might introduce his lengthened 
forms of address which the beloved disciple records 
— the whole company entered into a united form of 
thanksgiving : " Therefore are we bound to confess, 
to praise, to adore, to glorify, to extol, to honor, to 
bless, to exalt, to reverence Him who for our fore- 
fathers and for us wrought all these miracles, for he 
brought us forth from bondage into freedom. He 
changed our sorrow into joy, our mourning into a 
feast. He led us out of darkness into a great light, 
and from servitude to redemption. Let us sing there- 
fore in his presence, Hallelujah, praise ye the Lord !" 

Then the first part of the Great Hallel was sung, 
Psalms hundred and thirteenth and fourteenth. At 
this time, also, they drank the second cup of wine, 
and the master carefully washed his hands again. 
It is well to distinguish these cups of wine, and keep 
their order in mind. The Talmud prescribed that 
there should be four of them at least, even if the 
man should " receive the money from the box for the 
poor." It was added that if anyone could not obtain 
the wine otherwise " he must sell or pawn his coat or 
hire himself out for these four cups. " With what pro- 
priety does the papal church deny wine to the laity ? 

Now, taking a cake of the unleavened bread, the 
presiding leader broke it in pieces, saying at the 



62 SIMON peter: 

same time the form which was called " the blessing" 
of the bread: " Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, the 
king of the universe, who bringest forth fruit from the 
earth!" He then gave to each person a fragment to 
eat. This any one could dip, if he desired, in the 
vessel of sauce before him. While they were eating, 
the master said: "This is the bread of affliction which 
our fathers did eat in the land of Egypt." This will 
easily be recognized as the point in the service at which 
our Lord gave the "sop" to Judas. This traitor, 
therefore, did not partake of the paschal lamb; he 
went immediately out. 

Then came the eating of the Passover. The festi- 
val might be kept up till within an hour of midnight; 
then by rule it must end. The lamb was carved so 
as not to divide a joint or break a bone. It was ex- 
pected that the company would be so constructed as 
to consume the whole. Ten persons might be 
grouped around one table ; sometimes there were 
twenty. Whatever was left must be burned that same 
night. 

Immediately after this, the third cup was offered. 
Here, if at any point in particular, the Passover 
glided wholly over into the Lord's Supper. For this in 
all the Jewish ritual was called, as Paul calls it, "the 
cup of blessing." A special benediction was invoked 
upon it. The Talmud exalts it as in ten particulars 
the chief cup of the feast. And to this day, in every 
Israelitish dwelling, when this third cup has been 
drunk, the door is flung wide open to admit Elijah as 
the Messiah's forerunner and herald. 



SIMON'S FIRST PASSOVER. 6$ 

Now came a lengthy prayer and ascription of 
praise. Then the remainder of the Hallel was sung: 
Psalms hundred and fifteenth to eighteenth; and the 
feast concluded with a fourth and final cup. It is likely 
that this was the "hymn" at the Lord's Supper. 
And if the conjecture be correct, that Jesus meant to 
give his feast a forward reach by omitting the closing 
cup till he should meet all his people in the "king- 
dom of God," then this was the point where the 
intercessory prayer was delivered, and the solemn 
departure to Gethsemane begun. 

It is worthy of note, just here, that in reciting this 
portion of the Hallel, the Jews always repeat those 
words applied with such force by Christ to himself in 
connection with his parable of the wicked husband- 
man: "The stone which the builders refused is be- 
come the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's 
doing; it is marvelous in our eyes." 

For the first evening there is arranged a rehearsal 
of the "abundant miracles" that God has performed 
in the night. Such instances are cited as that Abra- 
ham conquered when he divided his company at 
night, Israel wrestled and overcame at night, the 
Syrian was terrified in the dead of the night, Daniel 
was delivered from the lions at night, etc. These 
instances are arranged in seven groups, each of which 
is introduced by the set form of sentence : "And it 
came to pass at midnight." 

A similar recitative is prepared with reference to 
the mighty power displayed by God at the passover, 
each section of which has the introductory sentence, 



64 SIMON PETER : 

"And ye shall say, This is the sacrifice of the pass- 
over." Among the miracles mentioned as occurring 
in connection with this feast, are, that God appeared 
to Abraham in the heat of the day at that time ; that 
then the patriarclv fed the angels with unleavened 
cakes ; that the inhabitants of Sodom were destroyed 
at the passover ; Lot was delivered, who baked un- 
leavened cakes for the passover; Midian was de- 
stroyed by the cake of barley bread, like the offering 
of an omer of barley in the passover; Haman was 
executed at the passover, etc. 

A prayer for the rebuilding of Jerusalem concludes 
the service, after which it is declared that the pass- 
over is now accomplished, according to its order, for- 
malities, and customs, the declaration ending with an 
ejaculatory appeal to God to hasten to lead the re- 
deemed to Zion. 

Can it not be seen now, from this rehearsal, that 
the young children, and especially this boy Simon — 
if it be true, as we imagined, that he took part in the 
service — would gain a lesson never to be forgotten 
upon these passover days? It was all one great 
splendid parable. It told him of the Messiah, who 
was the Paschal Lamb, not for Israel only, but for all 
humankind. 

We sometimes ask how much the ancient people of 
God knew concerning the gospel, as it was afterwards 
more fully exhibited when Jesus came. It is evident 
that they saw the Saviour in the types. And here 
particularly, every one could have said with the apos- 
tle, "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." 



CHAPTER VII. 

JUDAS THE GAULONITE. 

"Nothing falsifies history more than logic," says 
Guizot; "when the mind rests on one idea, it draws 
all possible consequences, and makes it produce all 
that it could produce; then it represents it in history 
with all this attendance. But it is not so that the 
world moves. Events are not so quick in their de- 
ductions as the human mind is in the deductions it 
makes." 

Here, now, we are trying to show, if we can, how 
much the fashioning of Simon Peter's character is due 
to the political and moral events of those years 
through which he passed in his youth and opening 
manhood. We may be in error all the time; we may 
imagine him a thoughtful and stirring patriot, -or we 
might simply class him among the dull fishermen 
who plied the same trade, and left the world to run 
on in its grooves as best it could. It is hard, how- 
ever, to think of him as tame or unobservant, and 
harder still as torpid and plodding, while great pur- 
poses were rising and falling around him, full of ex- 
citement 

There were certainly two important facts which 
swept out into his range of vision about this period 
of his life. The nation, for one thing, was agitated 
by the tidings of the death of the king himself. This 
event must have created a profound impression among 
the Bethsaida people, because it took place within 



66 simon peter: 

reach of their particular range; details came to them 
easily. 

Such a catastrophe had been anticipated; for it was 
known in all the region that Herod had been smitten 
with an awful and incurable disease. He was eaten 
by worms, ulcerated and foul with indescribable sore- 
ness and loathsome corruption. A series of lonely 
journeys for relief had been commenced, but with no 
success. 

Near Bethlehem, even to the present day, is pointed 
out a singular conical hill, called the "Frank Moun- 
tain." On its summit, many years before, this mon- 
arch had builded a .royal palace. There he had 
slept, while — all unconsciously to him — the true 
Prince of the House of David had been born just be- 
low him, and almost under the sweep of his outlook, 
in the manger of an inn. But now Herod, with a 
mind full of murder and a body full of pain, could 
only find in its splendor food for remorse. Visions 
of coming retribution filled his nights with dreams 
till he cried out in fright. 

Indeed, there was enough to torment him before 
his time, already recorded in the dreadful chapters of 
his biography. Perhaps no man ever lived, whose 
name has come down to us through the ages, who 
was the actual embodiment of more of the execrable 
attributes of our vilest human nature than was this 
man Herod — whom a matchless sarcasm has some- 
times called "The Great." 

He lived in an atmosphere of murder. The Beth- 
lehem infants were by no means his chief victims. 



JUDAS THE GAULONITE. 67 

Priests had died under his imperial mandate for no 
other crime than being in his way. Nobles openly 
accused of nothing had been beheaded in his passion 
of jealousy. Aristobulus, his brother-in-law, had 
been drowned, and the wickedness of such a wrong 
passed off as a joke. He slew three of his own 
sons, his uncle, his wife's mother, her father, and 
her uncle. He never loved but one being, Mariamne; 
of her he grew repeatedly suspicious, and at last in a 
burst of wrath commanded her death by strangulation. 
He was thus treacherous to all his confidants and 
friends. He exercised his diabolical ingenuity in the 
invention of new modes and fresh forms of execution, 
and tested each by a sort of experiment on those 
who stood next to him. Assassinations were his 
daily indulgence. Some victims he caused to be cut 
in two, some he burned, some he suffocated, some 
he tortured. 

Two notable sayings are recorded concerning his 
life, as graphic as they are terrible. Some messen- 
gers were sent in desperate straits to make complaint 
to the Emperor. These declared that the condition 
of things in Palestine was intolerable. They reported 
a panic of fear everywhere. No one knew whose 
turn would come next. They said that the -citizens 
were kept in such apprehension " that the survivors 
were more wretched than the sufferers." And it is 
averred that the reply of Augustus was this: "It 
seems to be better that one should be Herod's pig 
than his son." It is probable that he meant by this 
to intimate that a pig was the safer of the two, be- 



68 simon peter: 

cause Herod, being a very devout Jew meanwhile, 
would not touch a swine, while he could kill his chil- 
dren with a relish. 

Now, in anticipation of the death of this monster, 
the whole province was convulsed with tidings of re- 
volts among the oppressed people. Two famous 
teachers of the law, in some explosion of frantic zeal, 
tore away the large eagle of gold which Herod had 
placed over the gate of the temple. They were im- 
mediately caught, and in company with forty adher- 
ents were burned alive at Jerusalem. 

At last the end came. Herod appears to have 
been almost maddened by his sufferings, combined 
with his alarm at immediate retribution. He made 
one more effort for relief; across the Dead Sea he 
sought the hot springs of Callirrhoe. Meanwhile he 
kept speaking to Mariamne as if she were yet alive ; 
he forced his attendants to talk about her as still 
living. Haunted by the spectres of the relatives he 
had slain, he broke out often into exclamations of 
anguish and mortal fright. He was inwardly burn- 
ing with a continual fever, yet he could take no 
water for his thirst. He could not even lie down, 
because of a shortness of breath. Spasms racked his 
whole body, already sore beyond endurance. Jose- 
phus appears to be almost elate, and is certainly pic- 
turesque, in his descriptions. 

The warm baths did the king no good. Physi- 
cians ordered his whole person to be fomented with 
oil ; they let him down into a vessel of that fluid, but 
on the instant his eyes became relaxed, and he fell 



JUDAS THE GAULONITE. 69 

back suddenly, as if he were dead. He revived 
under their cries for help, but from that time he de- 
spaired of recovery. Then he pretended he was 
going back to Jerusalem, but turned aside into 
Jericho, oppressed with the deepest melancholy. 
But his heart was foul with the purpose of another 
crime, atrocious as ever. 

Assembling the men of distinction from all the 
Judaean villages, he thrust them under guard in the 
Hippodrome. These he pledged his sister Salome 
and her husband Alexas to put to death immediately, 
when he should expire. He declared his purpose in 
this terrible slaughter to be to make every house in 
Judaea weep over him. 

So now, in his splendid palace by the Jordan, built 
under the shade in the City of Palms, Herod the 
Great lay dying. He had only six more days to 
live. But even that afforded space for a suicide. 
Calling for a knife to slice an apple, he suddenly 
sought a quicker death by stabbing himself, but his 
cousin saved his life. 

Still there remained time for another murder. His 
son Antipater was in prison. Spitefully imagining 
he would be glad to take the kingdom, this inhuman 
father sent command that he be instantly dispatched 
by spearmen. This assassination appears to have 
been a success. 

A few hours before he drew his last breath, Salome 
ran out among the soldiers to order the release of 
the citizens confined in the Hippodrome, saying the 
king had changed his mind. 



;o simon peter: 

No : Herod had not changed his mind, but he 
had changed worlds. After seventy years of triumph 
in lust, villainy, and murder, this prince of tyrants 
went forth alone to meet his future and his God. 

Such events as these would rush easily up the Jordan 
valley, and reach the ears of Galilean peasants. We 
must understand that not only the luxurious nobles, 
whose barges of pleasure, with great white sails of 
splendor shining, swept out of the port at Tiberias 
upon the lake of Gennesaret, but the humble fisher- 
men, also, whose modest boats brought them food for 
daily life from the same waters, would hear and be 
moved by such news. Revolutions now seemed just 
on ahead. Favorites were trembling in their places. 
Corrupt officers of the government might soon expect 
to be brought to account. The nation, oppressed 
beyond endurance, would certainly be incited into 
risings against rulers, perhaps Roman and Jewish alike. 

The presage was true. Forth from Gaulonitis — the 
region in the rear of Gennesaret — came Judas, head- 
ing a wild insurrection, and setting the whole northern 
country in an uproar. That was a second great event 
within Simon Peter's range. This is that Judas to 
whose adventures Gamaliel alluded in his speech, when 
the apostles were arraigned before the council. He 
mentioned a malcontent by the name of Theudas, 
who came to nothing ; and then added, " After this 
man rose up Judas of Galilee, in the days of the tax- 
ing, and drew away much people after him ; he also 
perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were 
dispersed." 



JUDAS THE GAULONITE. /I 

Gamaliel called him "Judas of Galilee," because his 
military exploits were performed in Galilee. There, 
also, was the scene of his devastation and final subjec- 
tion. But the man originated among the mountains 
of Golan or Gaulonitis, the land of a resolute and hardy 
race, forth from which great leaders came now and 
then along the ages ; men like Elijah the Tishbite, 
like Jephthah the Gileadite ; full of force, but not 
always actuated by the best purpose. 

Simon, son of Jonas, was getting along in life now, 
growing old enough to think. And we need to know, 
when we find strong elements in his character here- 
after, that there were tempestuous periods of history 
when he acquired them. Many mistakes may be 
made about Jesus' disciples, by those who imagine 
they were a tranquilly educated group of rustics, out- 
side of the world for forty years. 

It is difficult to ascertain just where this Judas 
ought to be registered. The name of Judas always 
arouses unusual sensation. It has a curious history, 
and brings with it mixed associations to our minds. 
Judas Maccabeus — that was a name full of valor 
heroic and heroism unavailing. Judas from Kerioth 
— that is a name crowded with treason and shame of 
suicide. Judas, the brother of James — called, in one 
pathetic parenthesis, " not Iscariot" — that name is 
full of fidelity and honor, borne by a true disciple. 

It seems almost impossible to find out the real facts 
of history in those troublous times. There is always 
in every disturbed country a class of men whose 
patriotism needs to be studied. They like peace 



72 SIMON PETER: 

when money can be made by it. They are sure to 
be calm whenever others endure the weight of oppres- 
sions. Any existing order of things is accepted 
cheerfully, if it offers places for such industry in office 
as they feel they can supply. With such people 
Galilee was crowded for many years after Herod's 
decease. Indeed, the great sufferings of the Jews did 
not come from the Romans ; for the tribute demanded 
was not always excessive for frugal people. 

But men of their own nation accepted the position 
of tax-collectors. This was unpopular, and the 
creatures were hated cordially. The offices were 
sought for gain, and used for extortion, so that fresh 
levies only afforded new opportunities for renegade 
Israelites to cheat their neighbors, and grow rich out 
of what they pretended they transmitted to Rome. 
Hence the places were sold at convenience, and the 
revenues were vitiated by bribes. Publicans, as they 
were called, were dissolute and profligate in social 
life ; yet no one dared offend them. The posture of 
affairs became finally unbearable. The priesthood 
yielded to the pressure, and interposed no defences 
for the oppressed. They preached peace, and set out 
to make money like the rest. Lawlessness prevailed 
everywhere. Entire districts were overrun with rob- 
bers and organized banditti. 

Whether this Gaulonite Judas was a true patriot — 
or whether he was what in one of our modern 
languages is called a 'malignant', and in another an 
- irreconcileable;' or whether he was simply an ordi- 
nary freebooter from the hills, or whether he was a 



JUDAS THE GAULONITE. 73 

religious zealot inflamed by enthusiasm of Pharisee 
piety, cannot be stated. The annals of Josephus are 
not trustworthy, though perhaps we are compelled to 
admit they are the best we have. This man is an 
enigma himself, for he was a parasite and an intriguer. 
Now on the patriot side, and now with the oppres- 
sors, Josephus was, in a single sense, the Talleyrand 
of his times. He managed to remain in favor with all 
those dynasties through the risings and fallings of 
which he passed. Such a career put him on a constant 
defence. His history is always forced. He crowds 
in much and omits more. 

The best account of Judas is found in one of 
Origen's Homilies. It appears that he had been a 
brigand chief and an outlaw in previous times. Now 
he came forth in the character of a patriotic deliverer 
of his nation from the sway of foreigners. To this 
some say he added a religious cast, declaring that he 
took the sword for the purity of the church as well as 
the freedom of the land. He claimed the severest 
austerity in morals, the most rigid performance 
of duty, the loftiest zeal of a true defender of the 
faith. Much aid was brought to his cause by the as- 
sociation with him of a Pharisee called Sadoc. The 
insurgents avowed as their aim nothing short of a 
re-establishment of the Jewish theocracy, and hence 
disowned every form of government which did not 
come directly from high heaven. They chose as 
their war-cry one of the watchwords of the Macca- 
bees, which so thrilled the people: "We have no 
Lord nor Master but God." 



74 SIMON PETER : 

It is said that the eloquence of this Judas was elec- 
tric. A vast number of excited men rallied around 
his standard, won by the magic of his voice. Some 
went so far as to proclaim him as the expected Mes- 
siah, foretold by the prophets, and now made mani- 
fest in the flesh. The occasion of a new tax gave him 
a violent theme for harangues, and was announced as 
the signal for hostilities. He declared against all 
rendering of tribute to Rome as a slavery and a 
shame. Calling upon the people to rise in arms for 
resistance, he swept through Galilee like lightning 
and flame. That entire northern country was given 
over for a while to the horde of depredators which 
followed him. They tore away the vines from their 
trellisses, and stamped the corn-fields under foot. They 
sacked the cities in sheer recklessness of ruin, and de- 
stroyed the towns of those quiet peasants who 
refused to join them. Local forces were at the first 
unequal to cope with them; and, during months of 
dismay, these wild outlaws ravaged the province, 
leaving desolation in their train. 

It can readily be conjectured what impressions 
these tumults would produce on a simple hamlet of 
fishermen like Bethsaida, innocently caught in the 
exact center of the frays. If Simon had been a half- 
dozen years older, we may be sure he would have 
been found brandishing; some sort of sword in the 
ranks of Judas. For in that movement there was 
just enough mixture of right and wrong to bewilder 
a man so impulsive in either direction as he was. For 
here at the outset was the Hope of the world, pos- 



JUDAS THE GAULONITE. 75 

sibly the Messiah in person; here was a champion 
for the poor; here was a patriot, stern as fate, and 
apparently incorruptible. It is in evidence that 
Judas communicated his fiery temper to his adher- 
ents. They were occasionally defeated in skirmishes; 
some were caught and put to cruel torture of rack 
and cross ; but not one was known to quail. 

The destruction went on. The bands of marauders 
made havoc specially in the temples which the pagan 
idolaters had builded and in which they conducted 
their heathen rites. Battle after battle thinned their 
numbers; but still the volunteers increased. Wounded 
and dying soldiers were brought into the villages 
along the borders of Lake Gennesaret. Humane 
efforts were needed to succor or to bury them. Zeb- 
edee and Jonas, perhaps Salome and Johanna, may 
have been summoned to minister help. Simon was 
near twenty years of age. He must have known and 
pondered these things by himself. 

But there could be only one end to this contest. 
It was unequal from the beginning, and must close in 
blood. The Roman military organization was too 
much for these undisciplined enthusiasts. One tre- 
mendous engagement, which filled the neighborhood 
with wailing, brought ultimate defeat. Judas was 
slain; and Cyrenius, sent for his subjection, tri- 
umphed easily over the scattered zealots. 

But it was half a century before the traces of this 
outbreak were erased. A party continued to raise 
the standard of this lost cause. Two sons of Judas, 
named James and John, started the insurrection 



J6 SIMON peter: 

afresh many years later; they were arrested and 
crucified. Then, a score of years after that, another 
son took up the standard. He assumed the style of a 
king, and committed enormities. But the authorities 
soon overcame his weak defences, and he went the 
melancholy way of the rest of his family; he was 
tortured to death. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TWENTY TROUBLED YEARS. 

Just note this: the revolt of Judas the Gaulonite 
occurred not far from what we call A. D. 6. From 
that date to A. D. 26, not one word is found any- 
where to give us help in Simon Peter's biography. 
Yet was the man growing towards his work. 

Perhaps it is this very vagueness of those unchron- 
icled twenty years which piques our curiosity so much. 
That simple Gennesaret life seems fascinating, and our 
interest kindles the more in any circumstances of it 
which do come to light, somewhat in proportion to 
their rareness. A strong conviction fastens itself in 
our minds that Simon's character, as we afterwards 
learn it, is the result — a sort of embodiment — of the 
times in which he began to exist, to grow and to 
think. In one sense, he interprets his age. 

We find Peter impulsive, irregular, and uncertain. 
And this much is plain: that these periods of Hebrew 
history, lying between Jesus' visit to Jerusalem at the 
age of twelve, and his appearance on the banks of 
the Jordan at thirty, were the fitfullest and most tur- 
bulent in moral vicissitudes that Palestine ever knew. 

Politically, the Jewish nation was as badly off as 
could be. The kingdom of Judah was subdued, lo- 
cal government was denied, the Romans ruled the 
land. Josephus gives this testimony: he says there 
were "ten thousand disorders in Judaea;" he adds, 
that the country was "full of robberies;" he gives his 



7$ SIMON PETER: 

deliberate estimate of the general misery, that, "at no 
time of their history, not even after their return from 
exile, had the nation been more wretched." 

Socially, the foundations were broken up. License 
was rampant over the province. Theft was unrebuked. 
The Bedouin lost his pre-eminence as a freebooter and 
brigand. Rascality rode in a gilded chariot, and lev- 
ied unreckoned taxes. Conscience was dead. A cyn- 
ical paganism laughed at the devotees that came to 
the prurient shrines for real comfort in trouble. Phi- 
losophy had no word of information to give. Lust 
wrote records and sang songs that in an age like ours 
it is just as well decent people should not quote. 

Religiously, matters went from bad to worse. Even 
the high priesthood could be so shifted from man to 
man, through all those disturbed years before and 
after this, that a common believer was to be pardoned 
if he "wist not" who happened, for the moment, to 
be in the place of the Lord's anointed. The Great 
Court was prostrate in venal subservience to tetrarchs 
and proconsuls, who with manipulation of the sects, 
could render the Sanhedrin a sham. None thought 
of a reformation of manners; for thought was bewil- 
dered in the public mind, when bad men did all the 
thinking. Humanity, as it was at that period, has 
been compared to old eyeless Orion, trying to grope 
his way to the abode of the sun. And certainly there 
was one particular of resemblance — its only guide was 
a stumbling messenger from the midst of infernal fire. 

Three sects of the Jews then wrestled with each 
other for supremacy — the Pharisees, the Sadducees, 



TWENTY TROUBLED YEARS. 79 

and the Essenes. Of these last no mention is made 
in the Scriptures. They were a sort of ascetic sect, 
occupying a position between the other two; retreat- 
ing into solitudes, claiming special endowments, hold- 
ing their possessions in common, wielding a power in 
either direction; but they did not often come along- 
side of the line of Christian instruction, nor of rebuke. 
So they never appear in the New Testament. 

The Sadducees were a sect which embraced most 
of the skeptical cavilers of that time. It required some 
ability and education to hold a position among them, 
for their opinions were tenuous and subtle. They 
rejected all doctrines of immortality, and of course 
denied the sanctions of divine rewards and punish- 
ments. They professed to believe men had no souls; 
they declared there were no angels in this world or 
out of it. Those passages of the Old Testament 
which speak of celestial beings they forced out of 
meaning by a kind of process resembling modern ra- 
tionalism. 

The Pharisees composed the great body of the peo- 
ple. Founders of this ancient sect became strongly 
tinctured in their tenets with Persian orientalism, 
while their system was in process of formation during 
the Babylonish captivity. Their doctrinal belief as- 
sumed the Bible to be the source of all knowledge of 
God, but they grafted innumerable traditions upon its 
precepts. Hence they frequently obscured its plain 
meaning, and sometimes contradicted it. 

Even this slight analysis of those creeds will ex- 
plain exactly why we hear more of the Pharisees in 
4* 



80 simon peter: 

the gospel history and of the Sadducees in the apos- 
tolic. Christ himself preached piety and morality, 
laying stress on practical duties. So it could not 
fail to be that he should attack the sleek self-satisfac- 
tion and formal routine of these hypocrites, who 
wasted so much of their time upon making clean the 
outside of the cup and platter, while within they were 
full of extortion and excess. But it became neces- 
sary, just a few years later, to lay the foundations of 
a proper theology for an increasing church. The 
apostles had need to preach doctrines, and in partic- 
ular the one new and extraordinary doctrine of the 
resurrection of the body from the dead, and the life 
everlasting. This was an abrupt and uncompromising 
attack upon the tenets of the Sadducees. So our 
Lord offended the Pharisees by denouncing their 
ineffable meanness and falsehood ; and the apostles 
offended the Sadducees by denouncing their wretched 
free-thinking and unbelief. 

Leaving the Essenes out of sight, therefore, it is 
evident enough that the two great characteristics of 
the age were formalism and infidelity. Speculative 
doubt made the Sadducee a trivial censor of others, 
with no faith of his own, a light-hearted, frivolous 
sensualist, with a supercilious contempt for those who 
were not advanced thinkers, as he comfortably as- 
serted Sadducees must always be understood to be. 
And spiritual pride of orthodoxy rendered the Phari- 
see a hard aristocrat among men and a noisome hyp- 
ocrite with God. He magnified the letter and lost 
the spirit ; and this was an evil result all the more 



TWENTY TROUBLED YEARS. 8 I 

fatal, because it happened that Pharisees had added 
to what they called the letter some coarser composi- 
tions of their own. Personal religion more abso- 
lutely dead never existed. The very name is the 
symbol of a dreary sanctimoniousness. 

So the picture of Simon's life from the time he 
entered that twenty-years' toil as a fisherman, to 
the day when he emerged from his obscurity at forty 
years, down by the Jordan, is not happy. The Arabs 
of to-day are accustomed to say in the East, when 
any one starts out on a journey with no particular 
destination, or without being told whither he is bound, 
" He is going towards God's gate." That bewilder- 
ed Jewish nation was going whither it knew not — 
that was perfectly clear then. And it is perfectly 
clear now that the race of man was unconsciously 
on the same transit, going directly towards the door 
of God's mercy, soon to open for the King coming in 
his beauty, and the land he was coming to was not 
very far off. 

Yet still there was a remnant. That brings us to 
one of the finest disclosures of the New Testament. 
The omniscient God never has left himself without a 
witness on the earth. Scattered around among the 
towns and villages there were to be found many 
spiritual believers like Nathanael, Israelites indeed, in 
whom was no guile. 

Most of us will remember that old Jerusalem Jew 
who came into the Temple at the presentation of 
Jesus, and took up the infant child in his arms, bless- 
ing God for having shown him his salvation. 



82 



SIMON PETER 



" And behold there was a man in Jerusalem, whose 
name was Simeon ; and the same man was just and 
devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel : and the 
Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto 
him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death 
before he had seen the Lord's Christ." 

This good man is here called a " devout " disciple. 
That is a word which is exceedingly significant, 
wherever we meet it in inspired history ; it marks a 
class of saints very acceptable to God. 

" And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, de- 
vout men, out of every nation under heaven." 

" And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, 
and made great lamentation over him." 

The term is explained in the case of Cornelius the 
Roman centurion : 

" There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cor- 
nelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian 
band, a devout man, and one that feared God with 
all his house, which gave much alms to the people, 
and prayed to God alway." 

The reference seems to be to those who were looking 
and waiting for the promised Messiah, and who readily 
received him when he came. Of these, Simeon was 
one ; and we reverently recall another. 

" And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the 
daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser ; she was 
of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven 
years from her virginity; and she was a widow of about 
fourscore and four years, which departed not from 
the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers 



TWENTY TROUBLED YEARS. S$ 

night and day. And she coming in that instant 
gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him 
to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem." 

Reared according to the Old Testament pattern, 
such persons easily glided into the New Testament 
life. In one sense, they are to be considered the 
Christians of that former dispensation. Abraham saw 
the day of Christ afar off, and was glad. Simeon 
and Anna saw that same day near at hand, and so 
were gladder still. Doubtless they had been for 
many years meek and exemplary servants of a 
Master unseen ; in whom, though they saw him not, 
yet believing, they rejoiced with joy unspeakable and 
full of glory ; receiving the end of their faith, even 
the salvation of their souls. They lived up to the 
light they possessed, strict in all the ceremonial ob- 
servances of the law of Moses, yet not as a mere 
perfunctory or meritorious performance, but discern- 
ing spiritually in each enactment a true meaning which 
gave it its value, and receiving every particular in 
the ancient ritual as a type and shadow of the coming 
Messiah. There were not many of these people, but 
there were some. 

Very beautiful seem such devout old men and 
women, like Simeon and Anna, around the person of 
that infant Saviour. They resemble loyal courtiers 
hailing the prince of their kingdom as he comes to 
his rightful throne. And very beautiful always 
seems the sight of an old believer, spiritually ranging 
himself, even in our time, on the side of Immanuel, 
son of Mary, son of David, son of God ! 



84 simon peter: 

" The glory of young men is their strength : and 
the beauty of old men is the gray head. The hoary 
head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way 
of righteousness. ,, - 

The chief element which characterized such faith 
as this was its expectancy. Those steady believers 
were looking forward. The constant hope in their 
hearts was that " the Lord's Christ " would come. 
They were "waiting for the Consolation of Israel." 
Think what profound significance there is in that 
name — the Consolation / Most strikingly does it follow 
the prophecy which bids the Messiah to be the com- 
fort of God's people. Harmoniously does it chime 
in with the present stay of the church, the Comforter 
which Jesus himself promised and afterwards sent. 
No one can fail to see how many and how signal are 
the advantages of such a state of expectancy. 

Better for men to walk by faith than by sight ! 
Indeed, how pitifully discouraging it would be to im- 
agine we had exhausted the gospel feast with the 
first taste of the food ! A fine outlook supplements 
and enhances a fine look ; quickening a reverent 
curiosity, stimulating holy meditation, sharpening 
devotional appetite, causing the whole soul so to 
hunger and thirst after righteousness, as that the best 
gratification which can be offered to it is just the 
righteousness it craves. Our lives are moulded, our 
innermost experience fashioned, under the full pres- 
sure of things around us in daily association — this is 
not to be disputed. But, more than by anything else, 
the Christian's future is fixed by the future which he 



TWENTY TROUBLED YEARS. 85 

sees. Our highest and best hopes are on ahead. 
" What God has laid out for his children," says quaint 
Matthew Henry, " is much ; but what he has laid up 
for them is more." 

But now a question arises : What gave men such a 
solicitously alert seeking exactly at this time ? The 
answer reveals one of the most interesting providences 
of God concerning the advent of Jesus. It seems to 
have been intended that before he should appear, he 
should have a fair right to receive the .name applied 
to him — the Desire of all nations. So the desires of 
humankind were excited towards him in anticipation 
of his arrival. Certain prophecies, contained in the 
Old Testament scriptures perhaps started the rumor. 
At all events, the fact is perfectly clear that, during 
the period crossed by the early life of Simon son of 
Jonas, the world at large was with an anxious eager- 
ness expecting Christ to come any moment. 

We know this from the sketches of the biographer 
Suetonius, from the annals of the historian Tacitus, 
from the eclogue of the poet Virgil. And Josephus 
adds his testimony likewise. These men did not 
make the report, they simply witnessed the fact 
that there was such a report in wide and credited 
circulation. Across the entire continent — which 
was then the known world — there prevailed the in- 
tense conviction that ere long, just now, within a 
month or a year or a day, at any time, a mighty King 
was coming in Judsea who should set up and hold 
dominion over all the earth ; that in him humanity 
should find its solace and its blessing ; and the primal 



86 simon peter: 

forfeit of the divine favor and image should be requit- 
ed and restored. 

That was enough to make anybody look upward 
to whom in that. general listlessness the power of 
thought remained. It is not now worth while to load 
these pages with quotations which are familiar from a 
thousand repetitions. The plain words of Suetonius 
will be sufficient here. He says : " There had been 
circulating throughout the East an ancient and con- 
stant opinion that a person or persons were destined 
to appear at this time in Judaea, who should conquer 
the world and set up a beneficent government over 
the whole of it." The illustration, which is also a 
proof, is found in that visit of the Wise Men from the 
far East, who came in search of the Saviour. 

Why may we not suppose that Zebedee and Salome 
— of whom we hear such excellent things afterwards 
— as well as Jonas and Johanna (if that was his wife's 
name), of whom we are sorry to hear nothing, were 
among the waiting and watching believers of that 
day ? Why not imagine these young men, John, 
James, Philip, Simon, and Andrew, were reared under 
just such tutelage of piety and prayer during all 
those years of their opening lives ? The Jews have 
a form of oath, among the most binding they ever 
employ, " By my hopes of beholding the Consola- 
tion." Think of those good villagers again. How 
they would go forth, like Isaac at eventide, to med- 
itate upon the peculiar care Jehovah had bestowed 
on their fathers and would continue to their children • 
how their hearts would swell among Jerusalem scenes, 



TWENTY TROUBLED YEARS. Sy 

as they visited them at the feasts, musing upon the 
former glory of the realm when the throne of David 
had been filled and the palace of Solomon had been 
tenanted by the Lord's own Anointed ; how eagerly 
they would anticipate the day when perhaps even 
their failing eyesight should rejoice in the restoration 
of everything they had been holding so honored and 
so dear ! 

People in our country often go further for Sabbath 
services than Bethsaida was from Nazareth. But 
Simon did not know what Mary pondered in her 
heart He spent those twenty troubled years of his 
mature life without once seeing Jesus, though close 
beside him ! 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 

"When the tale of bricks is doubled, then comes 
Moses:" this is an apothegm familiar among the Jews 
even to the present day, and rehearsed in their 
stories of the past. But Moses came twice; and, the 
first time, he was abruptly rejected. The " Prophet 
like unto Moses," promised and at last announced to 
our sin-enslaved race as the Redeemer, was intro- 
duced by a forerunner, who was not accepted any 
more than his Master. John the Baptist was ulti- 
mately beheaded for his reward of fidelity ; and the 
Lord Jesus was crucified. 

Thus it comes about that Christ's sad history 
strikes back on John's, and gives it an unexpected 
interpretation. Very true have proved those words 
of Heinrich Heine: "Wheresoever a great soul in 
this v/orld has uttered its thoughts, there always has 
been Golgotha." 

Affairs had now reached the last crisis. Pontius 
Pilate was misgoverning Judaea, filling history with 
extortions and infamies of crime. A new Herod, 
worthy of the name, was shaming the people with 
villanous lusts and defections in faith, his desperate 
morals fitly keeping pace with his downward career 
of apostasy. At Rome, Tiberius was living that 



THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 89 

life which Suetonius was to record in volumes so 
prurient and polluted that modern readers have to 
fill out the expurgated pages of filthy sentences with 
asterisks and blanks. 

Suddenly was heard a voice in the wilderness. 
There was singular pathos in it, as there is in all hu- 
man tones that have power. But it had, besides that, 
a sort of vibrating ring in it which intimated a chal- 
lenge. Experts say that idiots, even in the midst of 
a gibbering frolic, will pause abruptly to listen to the 
sound of a musical instrument ; perhaps some vague 
recollection of primal harmonies in a healthy nature 
before it was shattered may be awakened by the stir 
near by ; the soul seems seeking to render answer, 
but only succeeds in giving wistful attention. That 
was not a loud voice in those days down by the Dead 
Sea, but all Judaea heard it;" and up the Jordan it 
rushed with more than the usual celerity ; it certainly 
in due time reached the villagers in the land of Gen- 
nesaret, for some of them journeyed at once toward 
it — notably, Simon, son of Jonas, and John and James 
and Andrew, who were destined to figure in the train 
of Jesus Christ. 

The great wicked world of that time checked its 
ribaldry for some solemn moments to hear what such 
a preacher had to say. What he did say was surely 
worth the hearing : " Repent ye, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand." That call aroused consciences 
which indulged no false alarms. Men began to go 
down to the Jordan River from all directions in vast 
crowds, on a mission of inquiry which they called 



90 simon peter: 

curious, but which was really anxious. They found 
an individual of singular appearance and habit. He 
wore a camlet tunic, a loose garment of coarse sack- 
cloth, bound close to his person with a thong of un- 
tanned hide. His skin was bronzed with seasons of 
exposure in the strange defiles near what is now 
called Mar-Saba, the lower Kidron Valley between 
Bethlehem and the emaciated hills by the Dead Sea. 
His uncut hair hung down wildly over his shoulders, 
for it was vowed for him that no razor should come 
upon his head as a Nazarite ; this had been cove- 
nanted even from his earliest infancy. Stories were 
told about his living altogether upon locusts dipped 
in salt water and dried so that they looked somewhat 
like shrimps — just such poor food as the lowest peo- 
ple now eat in the same dreary district ; these, it was 
said, John rendered palatable or endurable by wild 
honey which he might happen to find in the rocks. 

Perhaps among the companies that visited this 
man in the desert, there were some few old neighbors 
who remembered those remarkable circumstances of 
Elisabeth's history thirty years before, up in the hill 
country near Hebron. It is likely they would rec- 
ognize in this preacher the mysterious child who as 
he grew had " waxed strong in spirit," and had then 
disappeared into "the deserts," and possibly would 
exclaim, the moment they set eyes upon him, "Why, 
this is the son of Zacharias, whose birth was foretold 
by the angel Gabriel ! He has doubtless been dwell- 
ing in these lonely solitudes ever since he was a lad; 
not a word has been heard of him for a generation !" 



THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 9 1 

The success which this desert preacher secured 
was wonderful. The language intimates that the 
entire country was moved into excitement, and 
actually gathered into assemblages around him: 
"Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, 
and all the region round about Jordan, and were 
baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins." 

We must recollect that this was the great Sabbati- 
cal year of the Jews; the people were less busy; the 
whole land was at rest ; a religious atmosphere was 
breathing around them; and so the awakened multi- 
tudes swept forth from their homes on every hand. 
Bethabara — the little fording-place just north of 
Jericho — was thronged with eager listeners from all 
classes and social conditions. When we consider all 
the circumstances, it would seem as if this solemn 
man from the wilderness had drawn the whole coun- 
try into his train. Our Saviour bore remarkable 
testimony to his powers. He pronounced him a 
"burning and shining light;" and once he left this 
stately verse, as a careful and exact register of the 
man and his office: "Verily, I say unto you, Among 
them that are born of woman, there has not risen a 
greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding, he 
that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than 
he." 

Thus he gave them to understand that John owed 
all his amazing strength with the multitude, not to 
any personal endowments of intellect, nor to any 
advantages of education, but to the supremacy of the 
heaven-sent truth he preached; at the best, he was a 



92 ^ SIMON peter: 

sinner needing to be saved; his force came from 
grace, not from gifts. 

At first the feeling must have been full of insatiate 
curiosity. Who was this strange being ? Many 
went down to the Jordan, and came back repeating 
inquisitive surmises they had heard. Some said he 
was the real Messiah ; others said he was Elijah ; 
others still mysteriously whispered that a new prophet 
had been sent with a startling message from the long- 
closed sky. Meantime, John reiterated his precise 
errand, and coupled it with fresh warnings. His 
office was that of a simple forerunner ; he was the 
voice crying in the wilderness — vox et praeterea nihil 
— a voice and nothing more. 

" And as the people were in expectation, and all 
men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were 
the Christ or not, John answered, saying unto them 
all, I indeed baptize you with water ; but one mightier 
than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy 
to unloose ; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost 
and with fire : whose fan is in his hand, and he will 
thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat 
into his garner ; but the chaff he will burn with fire 
unquenchable." 

And now, if there had been such a thing as a spir- 
itual barometer in the land of Israel, it would have 
awakened in the heart of a thoughtful man the live- 
liest alarm ; for the sinking of the index at this 
period was unprecedented. There was coming a 
storm of convulsion, tempest, and fire ; the sunshine 
was bright and pleasant around those old Pharisees, 



THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 93 

but the thunder was muttering ominously down by 
the Jordan. One morning, while the Baptist was at 
his ordinary work, administering that rite by which 
his converts entered into the promise of a new life, some 
of the chief people of the aristocratic sects presented 
themselves. It is evident, from John's manner as well 
as from his language, that he was astonished beyond 
measure at their visit. His abrupt challenge must 
have given them a singular surprise; for when he saw 
many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his bap- 
tism, he said unto them, "O generation of vipers, 
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to 
come?" 

It is easy to conjecture now that sharp conversation 
passed on between them. Here was a man, trained 
to solitudes where for a score of intelligent years he 
had had his own way with words, with no fear of 
contradiction before his eyes, no special tremor in 
the presence of supercilious hypocrites, of whom he 
had not asked odds. He demanded what they were 
there for. And they probably answered, " We have 
come to repent ; we are here to be baptized for the 
remission of our sins ; we are ready for a becom- 
ing confession." 

" Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance," 
replied this stern servant of God, perfectly well aware 
of the insincerity of those with whom he was sum- 
moned to deal, knowing they desired no more than 
to patronize him. 

Then it seems as if they, being angrily excited at 
his classing them with such poor peasants as were 



94 SIMON PETER : 

following him at the time, must have said something 
about their belonging to a race of sanctified people, 
dating far back to the Father of the Faithful himself. 
For suddenly, pointing to the bleak rocks lying close 
by, with one of his quick gestures of inexpressible 
contempt, John exclaimed — " And think not to say 
within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father ; 
for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones 
to raise up children unto Abraham." 

The result could have been anticipated ; these self- 
satisfied formalists went their way with consciences 
sorer perhaps, but with wills in no measure subdued ; 
they came to be endorsed by John, not to be lectured 
by him. Humbler people plainly got on far better. 

" And all the people that heard him, and the pub- 
licans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism 
of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the 
counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized 
of him." 

Then came the roar of the storm, and the rocking 
of spiritual earthquake. The nation was moved; 
the foundations were shaken. Faction contended 
with faction ; and this haggard man with the bold 
words answered with denunciations. He who could 
call Pharisees vipers called an adulterous king by the 
name he deserved. But multitudes of common people 
heard him gladly. All those sighing, waiting 
believers listened and turned away from their sins. 
The villages sent forth crowds from all the districts. 
And among them we find Simon son of Jonas, and 
Andrew, James, and John, from Galilee. 



THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 95 

And now let us seriously pause for a thoughtful 
moment, just to let our imagination catch a single pic- 
ture on the page of eternal history. Two lives have 
started out — one from Nazareth, one from Bethsaida; 
these two are to meet at the side of John the Baptist, 
and are never to be separated again; Simon will soon 
reach a companionship with Jesus which will give him 
a cross and a crown! 

But first there must be a discipleship of the law 
coming solemnly in order before the discipleship of 
the gospel. Nowhere can we find any record of the 
meeting at the Jordan. It is left to an easy conjec- 
ture that Simon was baptized, but it is not stated. We 
catch our earliest sight of this fisherman there in the 
crowd. It is fair to ask, What went he forth to see ? 
A reed shaken with the wind ? Ah, but this preacher 
was no reed! All sinew and soul, his figure rose 
among the sedges beside the river exceedingly sub- 
stantial and real. But what did he go forth to see? 
A man clothed in soft raiment? Anybody could have 
told him that they who wear soft clothing are in kings' 
houses. But what went Simon out for to see? A 
prophet? Yea, and more than a prophet, the Fore- 
runner of Christ. 

Think of a man like Simon coming in contact with 
a man like John the Baptist! For once this son of 
Jonas met a King of men ! 

'John, than which man a sadder or a greater 
Not till this day has been of woman born : 
John, like some iron peak, by the Creator 
Fired will} the red glow of the rushing morn, 

5 



95 SIMON PETER : 

This, when the sun shall rise and overcome it, 
Stands in his shining desolate and bare; 

Yet not the less the inexorable summit 
Flamed him his signal to the happier air." 

Here was the turning point of that fisherman's life. 
For an agonized and convulsed day or week or month 
— no one knows how the time was lengthened — he 
saw himself a poor, foolish, wicked sinner. Most likely 
he had supposed up to this time that he was alive; for 
years he had worn his strips of Scripture around his 
forehead, and done his small rounds of service. Like 
Paul, he was alive once because he was without the 
law; now he had met this searching man among the 
bushes by the Jordan; and John was the personifica- 
tion of Law. So when the commandment came, sin 
revived, and Simon died. 

That is to say, the disclosure of what the divine 
law really meant condemned him. It laid hold of the 
heart ; and this man suddenly discovered that his 
heart had never been in the shallow ceremonials of 
the Pharisees ; nor had he received God's pardon. 

Night after night, perhaps, when John had finished 
baptizing, and the restless throngs had gone away, 
and the stillness had settled over the plain, and only 
the river was moving on, swiftly as life was moving 
on, and only the stars were serene overhead, deep 
darkness in its awful suggestion was his companion, 
and heavy pain was his experience. For John had 
said one thing full of force and terror to a rustic man, 
whose imagination was picturesque like his : " And 
now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; 



THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 97 

every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good 
fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." 

What did that mean ? That God's mercy was 
waiting for sinful men to mend their ways, and was 
willing to give them a chance just a little longer. As 
a husbandman would drop his axe beside a tree- 
trunk, from whose branches came no fruit, deciding 
not to cut down the useless thing, but to grant a 
warning for a single season more, and leave his axe 
lying at the root for a sign — just so God was 
now signaling his patience with the nation and the 
race. 

These Bethsaida men had been reared to what 
hitherto appeared valuable routines and ceremonies 
of duty. Simon saw now how ineffably mean these 
punctilios were. His eyes were opened. If the law of 
Moses had been enough once, it could never be enough 
hereafter. For the great Light was in the world, and 
John was here bearing witness of it. So new respon- 
sibilities had been thrown upon a soul according to 
the knowledge it had received. In the overwhelming 
earnestness of the forerunner Simon perceived his 
own cause of alarm. He could nevermore be what 
had satisfied him before. 

" And the times of this ignorance God winked at ; 
but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent ; 
because he hath appointed a day in the which he will 
judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom 
he hath ordained." 

Oh, these days by the Jordan ! They seemed like 
a section of the Day of Judgment coming before its 



9S SIMON PETER: 

time! Yet, in his very hopelessness, this fisherman 
would find his hope. For John told him again and 
again of the One who should increase in his decrease 
soon. 

And John the Baptist was a reality. This poor 
world of ours has been so often trifled with that it 
has learned to be satisfied thoroughly only with what 
is honest and true. There could be then no possi- 
bility of mistaking this man, nor Simon either ; they 
were genuine. It is exhilarating to picture such men 
together for once. 

Virgil tells us that when iEneas descended into 
Hades to visit his father, he came to Charon's ferry 
across the infernal river. As he stepped into the 
light boat, accustomed to carry only ghosts, so heavy 
a weight of a living man made the craft tremble and 
creak through all the length of its sewed seams. 

We can presume that the hollow forms of social 
life in those wretched days were writhed and strained, 
if not shattered, by an uncompromising reality of 
manhood like that of John the Baptist at the Jordan. 
He was a man among the shadows of men. He had 
an actual " idea." He shook off the shams of relig- 
ion, and told men a great deal more about religion 
itself than they ever knew before. 

This being with the uncouth hair, and the scant 
garment, and the bronzed face, and the piercing 
eye, disdained all the adventitious shows of authority 
and drove his arguments straight toward the con- 
sciences of men. He put himself within reach of 
living people. Only he shred away the veils, and 



THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 99 

tinsels, and mockeries of an outward show ; he tore 
up traditions and mere commandments of men. 

" And the people asked him, saying, What shall 
we do then ? He answereth and saith unto them, 
He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that 
hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. 
Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said 
unto him, Master, what shall we do ? And he said 
unto them, Exact no more than that which is ap- 
pointed you. And the soldiers likewise demanded 
of him, saying, And what shall we do ? And he 
said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither 
accuse any falsely'; and be content with your wages." 

And this, this, in the midst of a community which 
was wont to peril the vast interests of the eternal 
future upon the length of a piece of parchment on the 
forehead, or the weight of a tithe ! 

Into the leadership of such a man as John would 
the loyalty of such a man as Simon instantly surrender 
itself. The son of Jonas had met his master. And 
that master's Master stood just beyond. And we 
need not be surprised to learn that, when we next 
look upon this Galilean fisherman, we shall see him in 
the full light of Immanuel the Son of God. And 
there will his life be ranged for all time to come, till 
Simon becomes Peter, and Peter is glorified. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE FINDING OF SIMON. 

Artists, the world over, have furnished us with a 
great many representations, in marble and upon can- 
vas, of the finding of Moses. Why does not some 
one produce this much more picturesque and pathetic 
scene of the New Testament, the finding of Simon 
Peter? " One of the two which heard John speak, and 
followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 
He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith 
unto him, We have found the Messias; which is, 
being interpreted, the Christ." 

Some slight rehearsals of the history at this point 
will help us to understand the unceremonious appear- 
ance of these two fishermen in the story. It appears 
that our Lord one day, almost immediately after his 
baptism, was walking by the river Jordan, near which 
his cousin, John the Baptist, was still lingering in the 
company of some friends. This wonderful man had 
gathered around his person a band of close adherents. 
They followed him, and learned of him, and so are 
called his disciples. To them, John, lifting his lean 
finger, and gesturing with his keen eye, pointed out 
the figure of the Nazarene Prophet as he advanced, 
and exclaimed: 

" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sin of the world!" 

Among the company at that moment were two 



THE FINDING OF SIMON. 10 1 

Galileans, whom we learn afterwards to have been 
Andrew, Jonas' son, and another John — the son of 
Zebedee — both from Bethsaida, neighbors and friends. 
These, apparently rendered curious by the words of 
the haggard Baptist, turned away from him at once 
and began to follow the retreating footsteps of Jesus 
along the bank. Thereupon, the Saviour, discover- 
ing they were quite intent on coming up with him, 
checked his pace, and courteously asked them what 
they desired of him. 

"Master, where dwellest thou?" Thus they an- 
swered his inquiry by putting another. 

Jesus gave them an invitation in reply, intimating 
that, if they would come on with him, they might see 
for themselves. 

It was then about four o'clock in the afternoon — the 
margin of our English Bible says — "About two hours 
before night." It is not certainly recorded where the 
Son of Man was then laying his homeless head. 
Some think he was abiding in a hut of boughs, some 
small "succoth" of oleander or willow cut from the 
near forests, and covered with a striped blanket of 
camel's hair. Others conjecture he chose the ordi- 
nary tent of coarse canvas — such as the pilgrims in 
those times used, when they came up to the annual 
festivities at Jerusalem, and encamped upon the slopes 
of the Mount of Olives — such as in all likelihood 
many of the Baptist's desert listeners employed for 
their shelter in the chilly nights beside the river. 
Still, it seems better to think of our Lord as having 
quarters in a dwelling of some relative or friend in 



102 SIMON PETER: 

the neighborhood, by whose hospitality he was for 
the time being made welcome. 

At any rate, wherever his abode was, the men fol- 
lowed him to the door. They probably looked upon 
Jesus as one of the traveling Rabbins, and in his an- 
swer to their question our Lord made use of the for- 
mula these religious teachers frequently employed 
when the systems they promulgated fell into discussion: 

" Seeing is believing; come and see!"' 

Pascal has been quoted as saying very suggestive- 
ly that human things must be known to be loved, 
but divine things must be loved first before they can 
be known. "Come and see," exclaims David. ''Come 
and see," pleads Philip with Nathanael. "Come and 
see," cries the Samaritan woman to her neighbors. 
"Come and see," Jesus says here likewise. It is the 
invitation for all time. Christianity wants nothing of 
all its opposers along the ages of history but just a 
fair look at it out of eyes willing to see. 

No record now remains of this interview of those 
two men, as they entered and conversed with Jesus. 
Only the imagination knows its significance. What 
an evening of disclosure it must have been to them ! 
What a revolution in their ways of thinking! What 
a crisis to their lives! What a turn to all their pros- 
pects in future! 

They may have staid till late that night; some imag- 
ine they talked all the night. At this impressive 
moment, when they went in to have a conference with 
Jesus about what John said, begins their long history 
which finally nailed Andrew on his singular gibbet of 



THE FINDING OF SIMON. IO3 

crucifixion, and sent John, the son of Zebedee, an 
aged and lonely exile, into Patmos for the visions of 
the Apocalypse. 

We could have pardoned Andrew and John if they 
had forgotten everything beside, and just remained at 
the Master's feet in a companionship so extraordinary 
and a communion so dear as that visit in the night 
afforded. But Andrew seems to have already caught 
the spirit of the exhortation, which his comrade John 
was inspired long years afterwards to press: " Let 
him that heareth say, Come." Up, therefore, at the 
early morning call of the Holy Spirit, he instantly 
hurried out for a new convert ; and the story goes on 
to relate, " He first findeth his own brother Simon." 

Here, then, is brought out the interesting fact that 
Andrew became the human instrument in the con- 
version of the great Apostle of the Circumcision. 
The sovereignty of God might easily have ordered 
this otherwise, and dealt with Peter as it did with 
Paul in his arrest. No intervention whatsoever was 
disclosed in the awful moment when Saul of Tarsus 
was stricken down on the road to Damascus. The 
voice he heard was that of Jesus in person. Here, 
however, we find the introduction of fraternal help. 
Andrew brought to the Saviour this brother of his 
with quickness and persistency. 

Richard Baxter's somewhat enthusiastic biographer, 
when contrasting him with Orton, remarks, " The 
one would have set the entire world on fire while the 
other was lighting a match !" It is true there are 
torpid temperaments among Christian workers, whom 

5* 



104 SIMON PETER: 

it seems actually impossible to start into energy and 
life. But this act of Andrew, and the subsequent 
record of Simon Peter himself, would produce a some- 
what strong impression that Jonas' family, as a whole, 
kept fully up to the line of legitimate zeal. 

Let us hope that John likewise — the other one 
from the Baptist's disciples who had shared the 
choice instructions of that interview in the night with 
Jesus — was as expeditious in seeking a convert, pos- 
sibly his own brother James, as was Andrew in seek- 
ing Simon, and that those sons of Zebedee became 
one in heart and one in grateful remembrance of 
each other, like the sons of Jonas. 

Indeed, some peculiarities in the phraseology here 
employed, coupled with the fact that John alone, of 
all the Evangelists, has recorded the incident of 
Peter's first becoming acquainted with Jesus at 
Bethabara, would lead us to believe that he felt him- 
self entitled to claim some share in the invitation that 
brought it about. For when this verse says Andrew 
"first findeth his own brother," it does not assert 
that the first act he did was this, but that he was the 
first one who did this. Just as if these two firm and 
old friends from Galilee had been speaking together 
in the gray light of that wonderful morning, and had 
remarked to each other : " Now this is the thing 
which Simon, above all others, ought to know at 
once; let us look him up as soon as possible." 

And then, in separating for the search, Andrew 
had caught an earlier glimpse of him than John ; but 
John, though disappointed in the fact, appears to 



THE FINDING OF SIMON. I05 

have felt he might rejoice in the memory. We know 
he wrote that gospel which bears his name, in the 
very latest years of his apostolic life, when he was an 
aged exile in the East, away from his home upon an 
island around which melancholy waves of the sea 
kept moaning. Yet even in those few choice particu- 
lars of history he saw fit to include, he took pains to 
rehearse this, as if he felt a sort of fond and loving 
pride in the fame of his Bethsaida townsmen. No 
one can possibly pass by the spring of exhilaration, 
the liveliness of the language, here in the inspired 
narrative. Each paragraph is exceedingly brief, but 
the spirit of it is unmistakably brisk and elate — 
as if this aged Evangelist, last of the apostolic band, 
had in the years of his lonely waiting learned to 
rejoice with a tender reminiscence, since all of those 
old comrades were vanished now, that the little village 
where he was born had furnished five out of the twelve 
whom Jesus chose for his disciples ; that these with- 
out exception had written the record of an honorable 
career; and that he himself might now, perhaps, just 
be permitted to mention he had been concerned in 
bringing Simon — the recognized chief of them all — 
to his first meeting with Christ. 

All this seems perfectly natural ; they may both 
have started on the same errand, only Andrew found 
the man first. But John certainly felt he, too, was to 
be congratulated upon the result. And it will do no 
harm if we think that just here was where the beloved 
disciple earliest learned the force of the command- 
ment which, as he afterwards wrote in one of his 



io6 simon peter: 

epistles, he had from the highest authority, "That he 
who loveth God love his brother also." 

This part of the gospel history shows us how 
essentially the spirit of our religion is a missionary 
spirit. It rejects all monopolies of grace. John's 
story here has, most aptly, been called " the chapter 
of the Eurekas." It is fairly crowded with "findings" 
and " founds." We are not surprised that such phrase- 
ology continually recurs. For every one who is 
ready to shout, " We have found," now, as then, goes 
instantly on an errand of finding. Andrew finds 
Simon, and then tells him simply what he has found. 
Jesus finds Philip, and Philip in turn finds Nathanael, 
and says the Messiah is found. Thus these happy 
voices of relief fly from one to another ; and thus 
they fly now all around the living world. 

We are not informed where Simon abode when 
Andrew looked him up. It is of no importance 
to know more than that he was within a fraternal 
reach of influence and within a possible reach of 
Christ. Andrew knew instinctively that his brother 
would be welcome the moment Jesus set eyes upon 
him. Indeed, it may be assumed always by Christian 
workers that the good Lord in converting them gave 
pledges of grace to every soul they might bring to 
him. And hence the rule of all successful evangeli- 
zation of the world is discovered in just this principle : 
let every believer go instantly to work, and let each 
begin upon the soul which stands next to him. 

We must remember that Simon had gone a good 
way on towards Jesus when he had been going on so 



THE FINDING OF SIMON. 107 

far towards John. That human soul is very near to 
Christ's gospel who is agitated under the denunci- 
ations of the Forerunner's law. Moreover, Andrew 
opened an unusually wide store of exciting informa- 
tion, when he made his brother see that this new 
preacher was in all serious likelihood the actual 
Messiah of Israel. Meaning of untold and indescrib- 
able importance was condensed into the explosive 
language he used in order to arouse Simon's curi- 
osity, "We have found the Christ." 

He suddenly invoked the entire power of the 
ancient record. The passionate longing of many a 
generation was concentrated into one utterance. Dur- 
ing forty centuries, never had any devout Hebrew 
mother fastened her first eager look upon her new-born 
infant without solemnly wondering whether it might 
not be her child which should be the " Seed of the 
woman " that should according to the promise made 
in Paradise " bruise the serpent's head." 

The visions of the prophets, the inspired symbols 
of the ceremonial law, the fervid predictions of the 
singing psalmists, all pointed towards one luminous 
Star which was hanging out in the future over where 
Immanuel should be born. We can well imagine 
how Andrew's eye would flash, how his cheek would 
glow, with the intensity of his excited enthusiasm, as he 
rapidly rehearsed these now familiar words in the ear 
of the listening Simon. That mysterious night with 
Jesus had wrought in his own mind the absolute ful- 
ness of a profound conviction — just that which always 
inspires the sentences of human speech with indispu- 



108 simon peter: 

table force. Never fell a more weighty announce- 
ment upon mortal ear than that which he now spoke 
in the hearing of his brother. It was the world's 
glad " Eureka " after its four thousand years of 
puzzle over its worst problems. 

Hence this little formula of great meaning served 
the strict purpose ofa primitive creed to those new dis- 
ciples of Jesus. It was the confession of Andrew's faith 
when he repeated it to Simon, and Philip took it up 
easily when he made announcement to Nathanael : 
" We have found him, of whom Moses in the law and 
the prophets did write — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of 
Joseph !" 

Just now our story leads us forward a step. An- 
drew's duty was not yet done. In every true con- 
version much more is demanded than a bare intel- 
lectual acceptance of the articles of a creed : 

" Cold belief is not conviction ; rules are impotent to move; 

Let me see the Saviour's beauty, let me learn his depths of love; 
Let the light illume my darkness which around the apostle shone ; 
Lee me gaze upon thy glory — change to flesh this heart of stone." 

The sovereign act, by which a human being re- 
ceives a divine being as an indweller, so that as a 
fact the Holy Spirit becomes permanently resident 
in his soul, is in all cases alike an inscrutable mys- 
tery. But there are spiritual processes leading 
up to it and increments of increase on beyond it. 
Hence we must always recognize what are denomi- 
nated the means of grace. 

We have already noted with sincere admiration 
the means employed by Andrew in leading his 



THE FINDING OF SIMON. IOQ 

brother to Jesus. Their wise simplicity affords an 
ample explanation of their wonderful success. 

There were only two of them : first, he taught him ; 
then, he brought him. He plied instruction, then he 
used persuasion. 

We should have been surprised had this been 
otherwise ; for a man like Simon does not yield his 
heart to the gospel easily. If this man in particular 
had surrendered his life without a conflict, certainly 
it would have been the only instance we should ever 
have known of his surrendering anything without a 
good deal beforehand to be said. Peter was obsti- 
nate and opinionated in the presence of his equals ; 
he was complaisant and civil only in the presence of 
those above him or below him. Jesus often could 
check him, and the maid-servant could provoke him ; 
and in the early years of his discipleship he bent with 
about the same obsequiousness to the rebuke of the 
one and the taunt of the other. But from those as- 
sociates who were his natural comrades, Peter would 
not willingly receive advice ; he reckoned himself 
among the leaders, not the led. 

Hence we are inclined to lay some stress upon this 
word in the Scripture story, when we are told that 
Andrew " brought " him to the Saviour, as if it 
really might imply a measure of strenuous exertion, 
or force of argument, or pressure of fraternal affection. 
We do seriously believe that he accompanied the pre- 
sentation of an intellectual disclosure of truth with 
the energy of affectionate entreaty and the solicitude 
of a strong desire. 



IIO SIMON PETER: 

Of course, we understand that the Spirit of divine 
grace was present and efficient in the whole trans- 
action. God himself, the Holy Ghost, in person sent An- 
drew back in search of his brother, making him the ear- 
liest apostle among the disciples. He must have so 
aided him in the presentation of doctrine and the 
marshaling of motives in accepting it, while he talked 
with him, as that this Simon, slow and stubborn to 
follow others at any time, should now be willing to go 
where this new preacher was waiting to receive him. 



CHAPTER XL 

SIMON BECOMES PETER. 

The first human being that ever had need of a 
Saviour was a man called Adam ; and that name 
means — a man. The first human being that ever found 
a Saviour was a man called Andrew, and that name also 
means — a man. Humanity cries out unto God, and to 
humanity God answers. But the first man went on 
distributing his calamity of sin, while the second man 
started to tell of salvation. 

We have already seen how Andrew made his 
mark — a single and noteworthy mark — when he was 
honorably entrusted with the task of leading Simon 
Peter out into the new life. He became conspicuous as 
an instrument in entering this apostle on a public career. 

The picture suggested in the New Testament nar- 
rative grows from this moment very interesting and 
graphic. Together these two Bethsaida brothers 
advanced most unconsciously in their spiritual his- 
tory, as they went forward on their way towards that 
modest abode — one could wish we knew just where it 
was — which Andrew and John had left early that 
morning. Assured of an immediate admission by the 
grace displayed before, they entered the presence of 
the Lord. Simon at last stands face to face with Jesus. 

It is always a most impressive moment, that in 
which two historic persons meet for the first time." 
This earliest glimpse of the Nazarene Rabbi fixed all 
that fisherman's future. What must Simon have 



112 SIMON peter: 

thought of him! How memorable such an interview! 
Yet no record has been made of it beyond these few 
sentences now under our study. "When Jesus 
beheld him, he said/Thou art Simon, the son of Jona; 
thou shalt be called Cephas, which is, by interpreta- 
tion, a stone." Still, we cannot doubt that Simon's 
reflections took the shape of that startling suggestion 
offered by Andrew which had brought him to the 
spot. Here at the last — through all the windings of 
intricate and mighty history — -it was permitted to his 
own eyes to see the Desire of all nations, the Shiloh 
of Israel ! Here he was now standing before the Rod 
out of the stem of Jesse, which was the promised Plant 
of renown, the Wonderful, the Counselor! A mortal 
might look upon Immanuel, son of David, son of God ! 
The old painters have had a tradition among them 
— nobody is certain where they got it, nor whether it 
can possibly be authentic — which has always outlined 
their conceptions of the personal appearance of Simon 
Peter. His frame was strong and burly, grown sinewy 
from the exposure of his life and calling. Dark 
and piercing, his quick eye looked out wistfully from 
under a heavy bluff of forehead. His hair was short, 
crisp, and curly, black at first, now just sprinkling 
with gray. He was then, as nearly as we can con- 
jecture, about forty years old ; in the very prime of 
life, somewhat uncouth in manners, rough in mien, 
but a grand, forceful, noble-hearted, impulsive toiler 
from the Sea of Galilee. How little he had to com- 
mend him to Christ! No station, no education, no 
patronage, no wealth, no human promise whatsoever. 



SIMON BECOMES PETER. 113 

And yet what heartiness there was in the welcome 
he instantly received ! 

Our Lord followed the Old Testament precedent. 
As Abram was re-named Abraham, and as Jacob 
was re-named Israel, so now Simon was re-named 
Cephas, or Peter. And the question arises, What 
did that mean ? 

Among the Hebrews, even from the earliest ages, 
names were always chosen for the sake of a signifi- 
cance they bore. Sometimes they described the 
character or demeanor of the child, possibly even the 
personal appearance or graces. More frequently 
they acted as memorials of an incident in family his- 
tory. Names were all designed to express an idea. 
Hopes and reminiscences, wishes and intentions and 
plans for the future, were embodied in them. To 
alter an adult's name, therefore, was equivalent to the 
assertion of a modification of the individual, to a 
changing in some way of the purpose or direction of 
his entire life. It became a memorial of that change. 

That Simon Peter interposed no objection at this 
point is an evidence of his immediate subjection to 
Christ. There must have been something unusual 
in our Lord's manner. "Jesus beheld him." The 
word here rendered beheld is singularly specific. It 
means a great deal more than merely that he fixed 
his eye steadily and intently upon his visitor, as if 
he would read his soul through and through. No 
doubt Jesus met a look in return from Simon full of hon- 
est reverence and surrender, a resolute and unutterably 
earnest devotion of self thereafter and forever to his 



ii4 simon peter: 

service. At such a moment it is likely that Simon 
accepted in his own behalf the name for Jesus which 
Andrew and John had already applied to him — 
" Master," that name grown so welcome to every 
Christian ear in the ages since, that name commended 
even by Jesus who received it : " Ye call me Master 
and Lord ; and ye say well ; for so I am." Most 
joyfully sings old George Herbert as he reads the 
meaning of the word : 

" How sweetly doth 'My Master* sound! My Master! 
As ambergris leaves a rich scent 

Unto the taster, 
So do these words a sweet content, 
An oriental fragrancy — ' My Master !'" 

The first words of our Lord to Simon must have 
astonished an imperious mind like his; for here was 
one who assumed the unquestionable right to change 
the name he had always been called by: "Thou 
shalt be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, a 
stone." 

With perhaps a kind of play upon his father's name, 
also, the word Jona meaning a Dove, Jesus in effect 
says to this fisherman, 

"Out of weakness, I make thee strong; Son of a 
Dove, hereafter become a Rock!" 

One of the German commentators gives us what 
he considers a paraphrase of the Saviour's language 
thus: "Thou art Simon, the son of the shy Dove of 
the Rock; henceforth thou shalt be called the pro- 
tecting Rock of the Dove!" 



SIMON BECOMES PETER. I I 5 

It is not unlikely that there passed much more con- 
versation between Peter and Jesus, and it may have 
been late when they parted. If any one should ask 
at this juncture, When did Simon become experiment- 
ally a Christian? we think it would be safe to say that 
the real turning-point of his life was reached at that 
particular moment when his look met the look of 
Jesus. For this glance of divine mastership was not 
only one of those mental miracles by which our Lord 
immediately discovered character, but also one of 
those spiritual miracles by which he changed it. We 
cannot help recalling, out of our familiarity with the 
subsequent record of this disciple's history, that it was 
just another "look" from the same wonderful eyes 
which sent him forth from the scene of the denial a 
penitent, an humbled and an altered man. 

Simon's instantaneous acceptance of Jesus as the 
Messiah of his nation, and the Saviour of his soul, 
was perfectly characteristic. In that supreme surren- 
der of his whole being, most likely, his heart was 
changed by the Spirit of God, and the new purpose 
of life began to rule his career. For, as has been in- 
timated, this is the universal significance of all these 
stories of changing the names of people in the Scrip- 
tures. As soon as Simon was called Peter, he "put 
off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new 
man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image 
of him that created him." Thenceforward he was "a 
new creature." 

Thus much in general terms as to the bestowment 
of a new personal name upon this disciple. It may 



Il6 SIMON PETER: 

be worth while to dwell for a few moments of study 
upon the form of the name itself. The ordinary read- 
er of our English Scriptures may be confused to find 
that here our Lord does not call his follower Peter 
after all, but "Cephas." And further: this last seems 
to be the appellation which the apostle Paul also al- 
most invariably prefers in speaking of his associate. 
He uses Peter in only one instance — when writing to 
the Galatians; and scholars tell us that the oldest 
manuscripts insert Cephas even there as the correct 
reading. It is important to recollect that Cephas is 
the same as Peter; that is, Cephas in the Aramaic 
language — the old language of Palestine — means 
Rock, just as Peter does in the Greek. Many exposi- 
tors assert that in ordinary conversation Jesus most 
likely used the Greek tongue, while on special and 
solemn occasions he employed terms from the ver- 
nacular patois of the regions where his early life had 
been spent. 

We must not leave out of consideration the wise 
conjecture that this play upon words in the bestow- 
ment of a name is logically to be put alongside of 
that other familiar instance of the same import, ren- 
dered forever historic in the Protestant conflict with 
arrogance in the Church of Rome. It is discreet to 
say that such an appellation was designed to be a 
prophecy of the future work and position of Simon 
Peter, as the apostle, above all others, whom our 
Lord chose to lay the organic foundations of 
the New Testament church. For this Peter did, 
among the Jews on the Day of Pentecost, and in due 



SIMON BECOMES PETER. I 1 7 

time among the Gentiles likewise by the conversion 
of Cornelius and of those baptized at Caesarea. 

This is not the time and place for any exhaustive 
discussion of such a matter. We need only say now, 
it cannot be that Christ intended to bestow upon this 
disciple at this early moment either a supremacy 
over all the rest in point of authority, or a universal 
sovereignty in the visible church of the future. The 
pretensions which have been founded upon the use 
of this name would be ridiculous, if they had not been 
accepted by the easy world in its darkest ages, so far 
as latterly to become gigantic. 

One of the earliest questions which the cardinals 
put, when each new pope is elected in the Roman 
hierarchy, is this : " What is the name by which thou 
wilt be pleased to be called ?" Thus is preserved 
what some one has designated as a "fond imitation " 
in the installation of each successor of Peter in the 
apostolic chair. 

But even this is a late invention, and is said to 
have had a somewhat comical origin. For it dates 
back no further than the papal election of the year 
844. Then it is recorded that one who assumed 
the office of pope had two misfortunes at once to deal 
with -in his name. It was Peter di Bocca-Porco — ■ 
which, being interpreted, means Peter of the Swine's 
Mouth. This man said he deemed it an irreverence 
to be called Peter, for no person could be admitted 
worthy to bear the august appellation which that 
apostle had primarily received from the Lord. And 
he probably had a clearer reason for not desiring to 



n8 simon peter: 

be addressed as " His Holiness of the Swine's Mouth." 
Hence they crowned him as Sergius II. Since that 
time, all those who have been elected to the papal 
monarchy have in turn changed their old names for 
a new ; but it has never been stated in history that 
any one of them has chosen to be called Peter. 

Let us come back once more to the picture before 
us here now in the sacred story. Let us take a fresh 
look at this man, Jonas' son, as his brother Andrew 
leads him in, and leaves him standing in the presence 
of Jesus. Why call so inconsistent and fitful a man a 
Rock at all ? Did our Lord appreciate what he was? 

Leave out of notice all the worldly surroundings 
of this singular fisherman. There remains enough 
to excite our wonder in the single fact that Jesus did 
foreknow his entire biography, as a student of the 
New Testament would rehearse it now. When he 
said to him, " Thou art Simon the son of Jona," it 
was as if he had suddenly announced, "'I know you, 
and understand all about you." 

If any one is unwilling to consider it a proof of divine 
omniscience that Christ appeared acquainted with 
Simon from the opening of the interview, and that 
he recognized him the moment he was led in ; if any 
one feels ready to assert, when he hears Jesus call 
the man by his own name as he did, that Andrew 
quite possibly had told it to him on the occasion of the 
night- visit beforehand ; then — this instance being re- 
jected — there still will remain the unexplained and 
unquestionable story of Nathanael, equally clear 
and equally marvelous. That " Israelite without 



SIMON BECOMES PETER. I IQ 

guile " was so astonished, when Jesus addressed him, 
that he asked, " Whence knowest thou me ?" Our 
Lord told him in reply that even before Philip had 
looked him up, he had seen him under the fig-tree. 

It is a mere impertinence to call such recognitions 
"an innocent artifice," and compare Jesus, in them 
to Joan of Arc, as one who was in the habit of aver- 
ring that he knew something which intimately con- 
cerned him whom he wished to win, or who would 
seem to recall some circumstance dear to his heart in 
order to gain an influence. It is inconsistent with 
the genial frankness which Jesus displayed in all his 
friendships to imagine that he busied himself private- 
ly in picking up such little pieces of information con- 
cerning strangers, in order that on becoming ac- 
quainted he might arouse attention by springing upon 
them flattering surprises. Rather would we believe that 
our Lord divinely knew, measured, and registered 
every man he met. This was the way in which the 
disciples themselves understood it ; for John tells us 
explicitly that " Jesus knew all men, and needed not 
that any should testify of man : for he knew what 
was in man." He thoroughly comprehended what 
he was doing, when he welcomed such a person as 
Simon, abruptly made free to change his name on 
the spot, and even gave hint of his office. 

With this man's after history before us, how aston- 
ishing all this seems ! He has nothing that we know 
of to fit him for the gospel ministry, but a conjectural 
knowledge of the Scriptures gained in his early life. 

He appears unsophisticated and original enough 
6 



120 SIMON PETER: 

for our study as a new specimen of human nature. 
Coarse and opinionated ; perhaps unusually skilful in 
the billingsgate of that upper country; boisterous 
and loud in the fish markets of Capernaum ; there is 
reason to believe he used even to swear when at 
home, so* easily did he subsequently lapse into the 
habit. 

It may have been that our Lord searched through 
the mere surface- weakness of this as yet untrained 
and undisciplined temper of a genuine man, and dis- 
covered the real firmness of his character, the fear- 
lessness^and stability which under grace it might, 
and one day would, attain, the resolution and solidity 
it would settle into, the inflexibility of unalterable 
purpose it would at last exhibit. Simon was not 
going to deserve this new name for many sad months 
to come. But in the end the world would see that 
he was a Rock, which would be immovable when it 
should rest on the Rock of Ages. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE SCHOOL OF GRACE. 

Of two brothers — the first mentioned in the 
Old Testament — one murdered the other. Of two 
brothers — the first mentioned in the New Testament 
— the one brought the other to Jesus. It is an easy 
question to answer, which of these was worthiest of 
the name of his " brother's keeper " in the annals of 
the race. 

Since that memorable morning, when Simon Peter 
earliest came under our notice as a Christian man, 
and stood in the presence of Jesus, shining with the 
light of the new life on his forehead, many stirring 
events have passed into history. Jesus has been up 
to Cana and wrought a notable miracle ; he has 
visited Jerusalem, and at a public feast has driven the 
traders out of his Father's house ; he has announced 
the doctrine of regeneration to his interesting audience 
of one, in that midnight conversation with Nicodemus ; 
he has sent the converted Samaritan woman back into 
her city, and she has gathered scores of disciples for 
the Messiah; he has healed a nobleman's child at the 
point of death ; he has made a successless demonstra- 
tion at Nazareth ; rejected there, he has established his 
residence at Capernaum ; here we meet him again 
among the fishermen, where he is already preaching 
and laboring for the Kingdom. 

" And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two 



122 SIMON PETER : 

brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, 
casting a net into the sea; for they were fishers." 

The point of time, at which these words enter the 
record, is to be dated somewhat over a year after the 
arrest and imprisonment of John the Baptist. It be- 
comes an interesting question where the two brothers 
mentioned had been in the meantime, and how occu- 
pied. 

For some weeks after our Lord's baptism, the nar- 
rative fails. Jesus appears to have retired into seclu- 
sion. These disciples, acquaintance with whom he 
first made in Judaea, returned before long to their 
home in Bethsaida where they had been living, and 
resumed their occupation. But never after this were 
they what in previous years they had been; for now 
they were the true children of God. 

There is an ineffable mystery and grandeur in this 
new life which is by Christ. It lifts, it ennobles, it 
illuminates, an entire history and character. We see 
that young workingman Andrew suddenly made a 
preacher of the gospel. He had been the means of 
conversion to another soul than his own. What was 
Andrew only one short month before? And what 
was John? And what was Simon Peter? 

Three fishers went out on a journey of curious 
seeking for a strange prophet, of whom they had 
heard great things even so far away as Capernaum. 
They left their nets drying on the beach at the haunts 
in Bethsaida, while they should go down to the Jor- 
dan. Nobody ever talked about these simple neigh- 
bors before. No gleam of promise rested over their 



THE SCHOOL OF GRACE. 1 23 

future. They had no cultivation of mind, no graces 
of manners. Yet note how changed in everything 
they had returned from that visit. What a world of 
difference it had made to them all that they went in 
company to Bethabara, where John the Baptist was 
preaching! How they would comfort each other 
now! 

Bethsaidamust have rung with the glad tidings when 
these familiar voices announced as they came back, that 
they had found and seen the great Messiah of their 
nation. But we cannot conceal our surmise that their 
testimony simply brought them into ridicule and con- 
tradiction all around the lake. And we presume 
that, as months glided along, it became a sore subject 
among the doubting townsmen, and these friends 
were drawn closer and closer to each other by an oc- 
casional slight of reproach. But how they would en- 
joy the sweet company of those who believed them! 
On all that sheet of water — in all those little villages 
by the beach — how many were the busy boats, 
thronged with toiling men ! Yet in all Fishing- town 
only an unnoticed band of just three fishers represent- 
ed the New Testament church; for only these were 
Christians by the acceptance of Christ. 

It could be wished that we knew when Salome and 
Zebedee, Philip and James, gave their adherence to 
the same truth and entered the new life. It seems 
pleasant to think of those seven people at last hav- 
ing a sort of companionship in Christ there in 
Galilee. 

Imagine the joyous communings of spirit they 



124 SIMON PETER: 

would have with each other, when no one was by to 
disturb them with jibes of unbelief. Quiet, tender, 
long-remembered hours they would talk together out 
upon the beautiful waters on that inland sea. How 
glad Andrew was in Peter; how grateful Peter was 
to Andrew ! We wonder at what date it was, when 
Andrew began to call his brother by the new name 
Jesus gave him, and whether he ever dared to do it 
in the unsympathetic presence of those Bethsaida 
neighbors. 

Alone by themselves, that story, which was never 
to grow old, would be rehearsed whenever they met. 
It would be conversed about with partners and rela- 
tives who were willing to listen: — How they first saw 
John the Baptist, that haggard preacher who reminded 
everybody so much of Elijah, the moment men fixed 
their eyes on him — how sometimes they even sur- 
mised that he, this man in camel's hair raiment, might 
be himself the Messiah in disguise — how he compelled 
them seriously to see and sorrow over their sins ; then 
led them openly to resolve they would henceforth try 
to lead a truer and a better life — and how on that 
wonderful morning Jesus came by, and John pointed 
him out; and then Andrew and Zebedee's John 
went over to find out about him, and Andrew came 
back afterwards for Simon. Oh, how providential it 
all appeared now, as they looked over it afresh, and at 
last understood its bearing on their history. 

The highest work a man ever does in this world, is, 
done when he goes himself first to Jesus, and then 
leads another man to him. The hopes are all bright 



THE SCHOOL OF GRACE. 1 25 

— the purposes and the plans — the themes of con- 
verse and the means of enjoyment — all are grand and 
lasting forever. No changeable affection was it after 
that which kept Andrew and Simon always together. 
We talk of trees planted, and institutions founded, 
and churches builded, and monuments erected : but 
better than all is a life redeemed and started into 
Christian work for the race of lost men, as Andrew 
started Simon's. 

Still, this is not all. These fishermen appear also 
to have been kept in some sort of communication 
with Jesus in person. It is recorded that a few of 
the disciples were with him when he performed that 
first miracle at Cana of Galilee. Nazareth, his early 
home, was not far away from Bethsaida. Before he 
came into Capernaum to live, they may easily have 
journeyed to meet him, or he in turn come to them. 
And certainly, when he settled near the Sea of Tibe- 
rias, the whole company of them might frequently 
have been in his companionship in the market town 
where they sold their gains. 

On the whole, it appears likely that Jesus passed 
this intervening period as many of the Jewish Rab- 
bins did at that day. They were religious teachers 
at large, and were wont to collect classes of pupils, 
whom they orally instructed, and whom in their turn 
they sent forth to promulgate the doctrines they 
instilled. Their custom was to lecture, and then 
invite those who listened to ask questions. Thus 
always they piqued their curiosity, challenging their 
dialectic skill with puzzles and allegories — indeed, 



126 SIMON peter: 

the same general class of stones which, in our Lord's 
history, we are accustomed to call parables. They 
used to wander around from town to town ; and their 
scholars would come to them, or go with them, some- 
times sitting at their feet for a fresh lesson, sometimes 
expounding to little companies around themselves 
the lessons already learned. A custom similar to 
this prevailed through all the region. The likelihood 
is that our divine Lord quietly accepted the usages 
of his time, and that these friendly fishermen, during 
those eighteen or nineteen months, came continually 
into contact with him, and were carefully taught in 
the gospel from his own lips. 

Hence we see it was no loss to Simon Peter or 
the rest that they had been allowed thus to live and 
learn for a season, before they were called forth 
into independently responsible work. They serve 
who wait. Nor was this unusual. All readers of 
Scripture history must have observed how often it 
was ordered that the chosen agents of divine plans 
who disclosed themselves eventually as men of mark 
should have a retired period of quiet meditation and 
study soon after the first designation of their lives to 
special service. Time lost in action was made up 
subsequently in force. 

For some years following his official anointing 
David needed all the disciplines of strange outlaw 
life to fit him to be a king. Saul of Tarsus is believed 
to have delayed three entire seasons in Arabia, before 
he was publicly joined to the apostles. Moses, for a 
third of his whole history, dwelt in Midian, making 



THE SCHOOL OF GRACE. 1 27 

ready to be a fitting leader to bring up God's people 
out of Pharaoh's hand. 

So here : Simon Peter seems to have been left for 
further instruction and thought, before he was sum- 
moned irrevocably from his ordinary calling and 
entrusted with the great charge of becoming a fisher 
of men. When the Lord was ready for him, he was 
more nearly ready for his office ; and then the call 
was unhesitatingly made. Although it fright- 
ened him at first, we shall see that it found Simon 
far more trustworthy as well as more intelligently 
willing. 

There can be no harm in pausing here long enough 
to say that a practical lesson of vast importance is 
given in this part of the sacred story. Simon Peter's 
docility at this crisis of his career is calculated to 
check and rebuke that impatient and restless disposi- 
tion of modern young Christian workers who are in 
course of ordinary training for duty. One may be 
anxious to be out in the fame of public teaching now, 
when rather he ought to be patiently amassing ex- 
perience and materials in his preparation ; for no 
one is able to talk the celestial language well who 
has not first acquired the alphabet and mastered 
laboriously some of the inflections. 

The thought will reach higher than this. A great 

man once averred that if there were given him but 

four years for work in the pulpit he would use three 

of them in just making ready to preach. One may 

fret to be out in the world before he is disciplined ; 

but such men often fret more to be out of the field 
6* 



128 SIMON peter: 

afterwards. It is a very difficult thing to mention 
one preacher who has ever lamented he pursued the 
whole curriculum of study ; but we have all known 
a score who mourned that they ever so much as 
heard of the popular short-cuts to the pulpit through 
which they entered it. 

Simon Peter was gradually becoming acquainted 
with his Master and Lord, during the progress of all 
those interesting interviews by the sea. He was 
opening his eyes to vast issues and learning more 
and more of the grandeur of this world's redemption 
to holiness and obedience. He was coupling the stern 
demands of the Baptist with the gracious reliefs of 
gospel mercy. He was beginning to behold the good- 
ness and severity of God. And it would have altered 
the whole direction and tenor of his life if he had been 
abruptly advanced to that front place he was event- 
ually to occupy. 

But there is an end to everything, as there is a 
beginning. The time for the man's coming into 
public life was drawing nearer. When Jesus appeared 
on the beach, that November morning, it was no 
longer as a despised and unnoticed Nazarene. A 
great wave of popular favor was running in his be- 
half. The first year of our Lord's ministry in Gal- 
ilee was an emphatic success. The whole population 
was stirred into excitement. The people thronged 
him in the synagogue and the street. At any mo- 
ment he could find an audience, eager to hang upon 
his lips. The day was coming, and he knew it very 
well, in which this fickle Capernaum would turn 



THE SCHOOL OF GRACE. 1 29 

upon him wrathfully and spitefully. But just now 
he was at a height of gracious recognition, which 
rendered his civilities of extraordinary value. The 
transitions in his history were very like those in the 
natural features of country from the Jordan to the 
lake in Galilee. Those solemn solitudes around the 
Dead Sea might well suit the somber experiences of 
his temptation and the hard days of his rejection as 
a prophet. But now he has passed up into the sun- 
shine of Gennesaret : and human beings, as well as 
beautiful landscapes, seem to extend to him a pleas- 
ant welcome. He is at last the Great Rabbi. 

This is the exact moment he chooses to unite Simon 
Peter and the rest of the Bethsaida disciples close to 
him for all time. He suddenly presents himself, in 
the clear dawning of the day, as the fishermen are 
pulling in from their usual toil in the night. 

Let imagination draw the picture which rises just 
here out of the scriptural recital. The autumn col- 
ors are at their highest splendor. The hills are 
almost alive with the weird phantasms of purple and 
violet, rose and gold, which are delicately chasing 
after each other along their surface of gray rock as the 
rising sun kindles it. The fresh breeze ripples the 
water everywhere, except withinthe shore-line, under 
the lee of eastern precipices, whose shadows seem to 
quiet it down. The walnut-trees look sober in the 
rich green of their foliage ; but the oleanders have 
flashed gloriously into flowers. Some tourists say 
that Gennesaret is a commonplace lake, and would 
be deplorably tame but for its touching associations. 



130 SIMON PETER: 

Surely such persons have never seen it in the 
autumn. 

Jesus has come down upon the shore, and is walk- 
ing along silently, watching these Bethsaida brothers 
as they make what is, in all likelihood, a final and 
discouraged cast of their nets for the unlucky day. 
Perhaps his look is wistful and sympathetic when 
his eyes detect their want of success. But other 
plans are in his busily working mind. Of what was 
our Lord thinking- ? No one can venture to surmise. 

o 

But there is no irreverence in our supposing the day 
of decision was now reached in which he was about 
deliberately to draw this Simon with the new name 
into his counsels of evangelization. Disciple he had 
already been made ; apostle he was soon to become. 
One moment there was — and it may have been this 
one — in which Christ said to himself, as he afterwards 
said to Simon : 

"Here, then, is the man upon whom I am going 
to lay the perilous and hard work of establishing my 
church on the earth." 

To some very good people such a choice appears 
most singular and astonishing ; for they will insist 
on thinking of Simon's after-record of inconstancy 
and rashness. And it strikes prudent men as risky 
and indiscreet to peril so much on so little — to go 
to such a seashore to begin Christianity, and to start 
it with sailors. 

We might settle, as well here as elsewhere, one 
great principle in God's choice of men, as revealed 
to us in his word: the divine selection of agents has 



THE SCHOOL OF GRACE. 131 

always been based upon availability, and not upon 
goodness, upon efficiency rather than upon character. 

If anybody chooses to go so far as to assert that 
Jesus, in accepting Simon Peter with so poor a pros- 
pect, intelligently made choice of a man fairly con- 
spicuous for his defects, in order that all the glory of 
grand success in the future should necessarily be 
given to God where it belonged — it might not be 
easy to admit the statement with immediate acquies- 
cence; but he would have the privilege of quoting 
most appositely for his purpose ihe familiar text: 

"For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not 
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not 
many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the 
foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and 
God hath chosen the weak things of the world to 
confound the things which are mighty; and base 
things of the world, and things which are despised, 
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to 
bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should 
glory in his presence. Because the foolishness of 
God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is 
stronger than men." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

OBEDIENCE AND SUCCESS. 

"And it came to pass, that as the people pressed 
upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the 
lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by 
the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, 
and were washing their nets. And he entered into 
one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him 
that he would thrust out a little from the land. And 
he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship." 

It seems that our Lord had been, as usual, preach- 
ing to the multitudes which thronged him wherever 
he went. These curious people pressed upon him so 
closely that he became inconvenienced with such a 
crowd. So he requested Simon, who was the occu- 
pant and owner of a fishing-boat, and who at this 
moment was drying his seines on the shore, as fast as 
he could rinse them off in the shallow water, to let 
him get in with him, and to push out a little from the 
beach, so that he could better his chance of speaking. 
Then he easily went on, and finished his discourse, 
sitting on the thwart. 

But when, not unlikely, the disciple expected to 
take up his work again, Jesus surprised him with 
another, and this time a most singular, proposal. The 
instant he ceased preaching, he said: 

" Launch out into the deep, and let down your 
nets for a draught." 

It would appear that when our Lord made this pro- 



OBEDIENCE AND SUCCESS. I 33 

posal to Simon, the other disciples came at once 
alongside close enough to overhear. They entered 
their own boat, and pulled nearer this one. We can 
seem to see the small company now as they gather 
around the vessel, and mark that unusual request. 
Any one can pick out Simon Peter earliest for a 
quick recognition, for we have already learned to 
know his figure. There is no doubt that he was 
tired; looked haggard and rough; was in his usual 
uncouth every-day costume. 

But our Lord was in no wise ashamed of his com- 
panionship, even before all those supercilious Caper- 
naum people ; Jesus never did cherish any aristo- 
cratic " respect of persons." Every lawful vocation 
honored the man who filled it faithfully. And why 
not ? He made no denial when they called him "the 
carpenter's son." 

In the other boat were Simon's " partners." The 
work is so heavy sometimes in those prolific waters 
that the men, down to the present day, are accustomed 
to go out in pairs or parties, even in diminutive 
fleets together, sailing close enough for a call. 

It comes to our notice here that all these men had 
been fishing the entire night upon the lake, and had 
had only "fisherman's luck." They were doubtless 
in some measure out of spirits. With the utmost 
alacrity had Simon welcomed the Master, while he 
made a pulpit of his vessel. And with delighted 
docility had he sat with oar in hand to steady it ; 
for he loved to be an unhindered listener during all 
the fine discourse the Great Rabbi had delivered. 



134 simon peter: 

But this may have struck an outspeaking man like 
him as proposing and expecting too much. When 
the sudden request came, that he should start forth 
for a new venture after fish, it must have excited him 
with an unmitigated surprise. Such a suggestion 
entered his own sphere of acquaintance with things; 
it touched on his judgment, it challenged the expe- 
rience of many years, and offered room for the ex- 
pression of an opinion. Indeed, the first steps of 
compliance involved a great deal of what must have 
seemed to Peter to be profitless labor. His nets were 
strung all along the beach; to gather them in now, 
wet and heavy, and go out for another haul, appeared 
simply preposterous. So he made his reply; and he 
introduced a quiet, but immediate, deprecation of the 
proposal into his acceptance of it. There can be no 
sort of doubt that this man carried the entire public 
sentiment of the Capernaum by-standers too, a large 
number of whom were still within hearing. Simon 
answered : 

"Master, we have toiled all the night, and have 
taken nothing: nevertheless, at thy word I will let 
down the net." 

From this rejoinder, every one perceives that our 
Lord's suggestion appeared to Simon Peter partly 
professional, and partly unprofessional. And just so 
he constructs his inconsistent reply. 

It was professional, in that it threw this man, an 
old hand at fishing, back on his peculiar trade. We 
feel instinctively, as we study the story, that this was 
exactly what Jesus intended. He wanted all those men 



OBEDIENCE AND SUCCESS. 1 35 

to register the force of the difficulties put in the path of 
their obedience. Hence it was perfectly legitimate 
for him to arrange their test in the sphere of life 
where it was a natural thing for them to think and 
say, if they wished to express an opinion, that they 
were better informed than he was. 

But to be candid about it and do Simon Peter jus- 
tice in full, this request was really couched in such 
language that obedience to it was most unprofessional. 
It invited him to act against all his commonplace 
experience. Christ did not seek his mere counsel 
concerning some experimental venture of his own; 
he seriously proposed that Simon should do what 
would, in his honest opinion, make an undoubted 
laughing-stock of himself before his caviling neigh- 
bors. What would " Peter's wife's mother" think of 
it, when she learned that he had gone back on the 
water for such an errand as that? 

For there were three solid reasons against this 
procedure in the ordinary notions of the men. One 
was : it was past the time of day for fishing; nobody 
ever caught anything in the Sea of Galilee in the 
forenoon. Another was: Jesus had said he must 
push out into deep water, and that was positively no 
place for fishing; fishes seldom ran anywhere but in 
near the shores. And a third was: they themselves 
were all tired out with vain efforts already, worn 
quite too much to try needless hazards with washed 
nets. These experts intimated it was not a good, 
day for fishing, anyway. 

We may be certain that all Peter's partners sym- 



13^ SIMON PETER: 

pathized with him heartily, and most likely remarked 
to him something about such unprofitable risks under 
their breath. Fishermen are proverbially obstinate, 
inveterate in prejudices, set dreadfully in their ideas 
of knack in using tackle, and universally think they 
know more concerning fishing than anybody else in 
the world. Hence, with their ordinary philosophy of 
experience to back these disciples in a respectful 
refusal, it is very beautiful to observe how unhesitat- 
ingly they acquiesced. Simon (as was to be expected) 
makes a characteristic little apology just to soothe his 
professional pride; but throws the responsibility of 
probable failure on Jesus with uncomplaining respect, 
and then starts for the seines on the shore. 

So we can picture all of them, the moment they 
step out upon the sands, a little away from constraint, 
letting out the pressure of their incredulous surprise 
as they strain to lift the damp nets, in pretty much 
the same line of speeches. There is this peculiarity 
in most oriental fishermen: they have a great habit 
of talking to themselves, rapidly and excitedly, when 
they are engaged in sinewy work. If they are doing 
nothing, they are indolent, and often sit silent and 
taciturn. But the instant one set of their muscles 
springs into exercise, it appears as if all the rest were 
loosened. One can hear more Arabic than he can 
remember in a life-time, in a single half-hour by the 
side of the Lake Gennesaret, when the men are 
vociferously about their business. And if those 
friends of Jesus, obedient and honest, did never- 
theless give their feeling utterance under such 



OBEDIENCE AND SUCCESS. 1 37 

temptation, it would be nothing to lay up against 
them. 

It would be characteristic for Simon Peter to dwell 
upon the difficulty which lay foremost in his mind; 
perhaps he would say: 

"This going out again is perfectly useless: nobody 
can catch anything after daybreak: it is silly to fish 
in the broad sunshine: nevertheless, if the Master 
says so, I will let down the net!" 

Then James, a sober and judicious man by reputa- 
tion, would answer in his turn, throwing up his fin- 
gers to feel for the wind : 

"A good long row without much promise: there 
will be no possible luck in deep water to-day : fish in 
this lake never run there: nevertheless, if the Master 
says so, I will let down the net!" 

Even John, whom everybody knows was " the 
beloved disciple," as Peter was the loving disciple, 
would have a word to add just then: 

"Really there is less chance to-day than ever, for 
we look like a company thoroughly used up after 
such a night as last night: nevertheless, if the Master 
says so, I will let down the net!" 

But while they talk, they work; and soon the 
tackle has been all hurried in; they pile up everything 
in one great huddle, shove the boats down endwise, 
spring aboard, and are off at the word. 

Just here, before we forget it, we will fix our at- 
tention on a fine lesson for all Christians to learn: 
namely, that discouragements in duty never bring 
any release from the performance of it. 



138 SIMON PETER: 

One may search all the inspired biographies in 
vain; he will nowhere find an instance of obedience 
under unpromising circumstances, more admirable 
and exemplary than this of Simon Peter. Experi- 
ence in his case did not work hope; all the hope he 
felt made him ashamed. He had not one iota of 
confidence in this attempt he was making. Indeed, 
let us keep quite intelligent; Simon did not look 
upon himself as now going out a-fishing, but going 
out obeying. 

To each of us often comes a like call to service of 
the same Master. And the question for every Chris- 
tian, especially for every young Christian, to settle 
early, and once for all, is this: Am I going implicitly 
to obey my Lord ? Do I pledge myself, no matter 
what stands in the way, to press on in the line of 
duty, and leave all doubt and hindrance to vanish, as 
it will, through the power I am promised by him 
who sends me? It is just such unwavering fidelity — 
just such invincible determination — just such illogical 
imprudence of daring faith — which, in all ages since 
Simon's day of obedience, has moved the world. We 
are never to choose our season, or select our ground; 
we are simply to listen and to obey. 

We go on with the story. The men sailed in 
silence over the water, waiting for the gesture of 
Jesus to tell them where to stop. One can imagine 
that Simon Peter would look up now and then for an 
arrest, as they happened to be floating carelessly 
across what his knowledge of the lake told him 
were the best spots. But no signal dropped from the 



OBEDIENCE AND SUCCESS. 1 39 

Master's hand. And before long, even this leader 
must have discovered that Jesus had taken the whole 
matter into intelligent charge, and meant to cut off 
ordinary dependencies. The day grew hot, and the 
oars hung heavy ; in one of the most unsuspected 
and unpromising places conceivable, the order, sud- 
denly came to their ears that they should let down 
their seines. "And when they had this done, they 
enclosed a great multitude of fishes : and their net 
brake." 

That is, it was breaking — just beginning to break. 
The woven meshes were straining to the utmost. 
They dared not at once attempt to pull in the extraor- 
dinary haul. They did as fishers do in the same 
circumstances there now, in case they have to run 
another seine underneath that which seems giving 
way with the weight: "And they beckoned unto 
their partners, which were in the other ship, that 
they should come and help them. And they came, 
and filled both the ships, so that they began to 
sink." 

Literally, they "nodded over" to them, out in the 
offing a short distance. Picture the overwhelming 
amazement of these fishermen, as they saw such a 
miraculous yield come forth from the sea! The 
vessels, dry and empty up to this supreme moment, 
now shook under the burden of their tremulous load. 
Not a mullet had been taken before; not even a poor 
bream had that day floundered over the thwarts. 
Now, all as in an instant, the waters around them 
seemed quivering and splashing with the unantici- 



I40 SIMON PETER: 

pated shoal; and in their boats the great heaps of 
wallowing gifts and gains from the seines shone fresh 
and dancing in the forenoon sun. There was no 
sort of possibility of blinding their eyes to the 
miracle. They recognized the divine presence in- 
stantly. And with a great shamefaced admission of 
folly they now remembered what they had all said 
together upon the bank, when they had asserted it as 
a positive fact that not even Jesus could catch fish in 
Lake Gennesaret after sunrise ! 

"When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' 
knees, saying, Depart from me ; for I am a sinful 
man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that 
were with him, at the draught of the fishes which 
they had taken; and so were also James and John, 
the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with 
Simon." 

How suggestive such testimony is! Those who 
best understood the miracles of Jesus Christ, admired 
them most. We have here the opinion of experts; 
these fishermen had spent their lives on that sheet of 
water. They knew whether this haul was gained by 
natural means or by power of divine interposition. 
They were "astonished," so Luke says. And that 
word means wonder-stricken, or thunder-struck. 
Their notions beforehand were like all other skeptical 
notions; they seemed the concentration of wisdom 
and the actual embodiment of logic. But they left 
divine intervention out of the calculation. Hence the 
witness of those fishermen, after the event, is very 
valuable; for they may be trusted in giving testimony 



OBEDIENCE AND SUCCESS. 141 

to fact, when the acknowledgment humbled them so 
much. 

But now, while the men are looking at the fish, it is 
better for us to be looking after instruction. We pause 
tranquilly in the story, just where we are. The part- 
ners push off with a most profitable load, and hasten 
to reach the usual market for their unusual spoils. 
And we cannot doubt that, among the fish-wives of 
Capernaum, before the going down of the sun, there 
were told some most exciting tales of a marvelous 
draught which Simon's boat had brought in, made 
out in the deep water, and some time in the forenoon. 

We have already learned that no discouragement 
lying in the way of a clear command, has any force 
whatever to relieve men from responsibility. We 
need to put with that this other lesson, which is 
taught us here; namely, that unhesitating obedience 
is at once the condition and the pledge of thorough 
success. 

That is to say, when duty meets a man fairly, he 
cannot succeed unless he implicitly heeds the call. 
But if he does heed it, he may be sure he will suc- 
ceed. And the reason is found in one important 
fact: Jesus himself goes in the boat which he requests 
his disciples to launch forth upon the deep. One 
great word rings in the ears of the church: "Lo, I 
am with you always." That assurance makes every- 
thing possible to an unfaltering faith. The true-heart- 
ed believer receives Christ's promise with an exult- 
ant cry of confidence: "I can do all things through 
Christ which strengtheneth me! " The disciples alone 



142 SIMON PETER : 

did not catch the fish that day. A Presence with 
them was what summoned the shoal and gave them 
their boat-load. One single principle lies at the bot- 
tom of our religious life: we must put Christ our 
Master on before us, as the Israelites put the Ark of 
the Covenant when they entered the Jordan. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

"HITHER! BEHIND ME!" 

When we announce as the theme of our study, the 
call of a Galilean fisherman to the ministry of Jesus 
Christ, we expect to meet almost at once some won- 
derful sight. For we remember how constantly a 
supernatural endorsement seems to have been given, 
whenever any servant of God was to be suddenly 
summoned to conspicuous duty. 

Thus, when Moses was put in the leadership of Is- 
rael, and Aaron was joined with him to make the 
speeches, two miracles were immediately wrought to 
confirm the confidence and impress the hearts of 
these brothers in their acceptance of so vast a charge. 
And so, when Isaiah was called to be "the evangelic 
prophet," he was surprised with a most marvelous 
and magnificent vision of the Almighty throned in 
the temple. Even Paul, positively sightless for the 
three dark days in Damascus, was healed only by the 
providential opening of his eyes by Ananias through 
miraculous help. 

So here in this New Testament story, we find that 
when Simon son of Jonas was to be permanently 
commissioned to the apostleship, a great sign was 
wrought by the power of God to awaken and im- 
press his mind with the dignity of such an ofiice. It 
is the divine purpose of all miracles to arrest the at- 
tention of men, and thus give force and authority to 
any message which those miracles may accompany. 



144 SIMON PETER: 

Hence they ought to be studied in direct connection 
with everything which is stated, before and after. 
John Foster aptly compares miracles to the strokes 
upon the bell of the universe, meant primarily to an- 
nounce the momentous sermon which is to follow. 

Here, then, we must remember that this miracle 
(like all others of Christ) is a parable ; for he is seek- 
ing to secure a figure with which to make an abiding 
impression upon the imaginations of those Capernaum 
fishermen. And in order to do this, he enters the 
sphere of life with which they are most familiar. 
This is the import of that quaint antithesis with 
which some of the old divines used to point their 
comments on this portion of the gospel history: 
" Peter now, in taking, will himself get taken!" 

When we left Simon last, he was kneeling at the 
feet of Jesus in his own boat, some little distance out 
upon Lake Gennesaret. He was frightened and as- 
tonished. His boat was filled with fishes, but the 
frail craft was beginning to sink; the prosperity over- 
whelmed him. Moments of highest triumph are not 
always moments of highest safety, nor even of high- 
est satisfaction. We heard this man repeating words 
which he could not understand without spiritual ex- 
planation: 

" Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" 

Most unaccountable prayer; and yet eminently 
characteristic! Simon Peter never believed in half 
measures. His impulses were often rash and often 
reckless; but they were always tremendously logical, 
according to the way in which he reasoned. They 



"hither! behind me!" 145 

frequently rushed him on to the most alarming con- 
clusions. This exclamation, so startling and prepos- 
terous, had, however, some good in it. 

For, first of all, when Simon saw the divinity of 
Jesus Christ fully disclosed, he acknowledged it 
immediately. He applied to an undoubted man the 
name of LORD — the one ineffable and incom- 
municable Name which every intelligent Israelite 
knew belonged to Jehovah alone. Indeed, the New 
Testament translation of Jehovah is in Greek — the 
LORD. The Jews used to be awfully afraid of that 
name. It was a saying of theirs that if any man 
pronounced it profanely, God would take away from 
him his part in a future state. But this fearless fisher- 
man — the same one who afterwards told Jesus, "Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the living God" — was not 
any such man as to hold back from the pressure of 
truth.. So in one splendid instant of vast discovery, 
he deliberately called Jesus of Nazareth, Jehovah. It 
was the first of those grand confessions, which Simon 
kept making all along the way as he lived and 
learned. 

But the next thing in Simon's exclamation to ar- 
rest attention is the astonishing request he makes 
that Jesus should go away from him at once! He 
says "Depart from me!" How could the Saviour 
depart even if he had been willing, out there in the 
middle of the lake? How singular was the argument, 
which this frightened man insisted on pressing! "I 
am a sinful man, O Lord!" If he had discovered he 
was guilty before God's law, to whom else could he 



146 SIMON peter: 

go a penitent for pardon ? Who besides Jesus could 
help him? Simon eventually learned all that. For 
in answer to a high challenge on one special occasion: 
"Will ye also go away?" he replied: " Lord, to whom 
shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life ! " 

What sublimity there is in this early confession of 
faith by Peter, and yet what deprecation and mistake 
in his attitude of supplication! But we presume the 
process of his mind can be analysed. 

This admission of Jesus' Godhead involved un- 
utterable consequences. He felt himself vile in the 
presence of Jehovah. And if vile, he had no right 
at all to claim or to continue companionship. What 
was he, that he could bear to confront infinite purity, 
which always dwelt with infinite power? And if he 
had no risrht to share this nearness to God, the least 
he could do must be to relinquish and dismiss it. So 
he said explosively, Depart from me, for I am a sin- 
ner! Meantime, we see, what perhaps Peter did not 
fully appreciate then, that all this experience was just 
that at which Christ was aiming in the miracle. For, 
as good Matthew Henry suggests in commenting 
upon this passage, "Those whom Christ designs to 
admit to the most intimate acquaintance with him, he 
first makes sensible that they deserve to be at the 
greatest distance." 

True conviction of sin will be better wrought in 
the experience of any wrong-doer by an exhibition 
of God's character, God's law, and God's love, than by 
a detailed and particular series of indictments mar- 
shaled against him out of the memories of his fellow- 



"hither! behind me!" 147 

men. This consideration helps us to explain Peter's 
demeanor. 

He seems to have been aroused, and at the same 
moment abashed, like Jacob at Bethel, when he saw 
the vision of the ladder. Jacob recognized the fact 
that God Almighty was dealing with him ; so he felt 
crushed by the contact. Jacob's reflection was 
Simon's: " Surely the Lord is in this place; and I 
knew it not." 

We can imagine that there came to Simon Peter a 
most overpowering sense of his own defiled and hitherto 
valueless life ; a profound experience of personal 
guilt needing a Saviour; a deep reverence and awe, 
which fairly prostrated him under the weight of 
mingled grief and terror. The finite had for one 
supreme moment been in the radiance of the infinite; 
it had touched the standard of ineffable holiness, and 
trembled at its own littleness and exposure. 

We may as well look a little further on in the story, 
in order to know precisely how this experience ended. 
We learn, a few verses after, that the Saviour replied 
in tones of tenderness and encouragement, " Fear 
not." It is likely he offered his hand to his disciple, 
and took him up from clinging to his knees, soothing 
his excited feelings with words of kind reassurance. 
There always is forgiveness with Jesus, as well as 
reprobation of sin — forgiveness that he may be 
feared. He never did depart from any penitent soul 
which said to him, "I am a sinful man, O Lord!" 
Nobody in the world would have been more disap- 
pointed and surprised than Peter himself, if his absurd 



143 simon peter: 

request had been precipitately granted, and Jesus 
had taken him at his word and left him in the boat 
alone. We all make very foolish and very ruinous 
prayers, sometimes; it is well we have a considerate 
Redeemer, who knows how to treat them. 

Surely, most of us now understand that our Lord 
had been intelligently working this miracle in order 
to bring Simon Peter exactly to the confession he 
had volunteered. The feeling which his action had 
designed to produce was therefore reached. And no 
one can think, without sympathy and profound 
interest, of those solemn, awe-struck moments that 
succeeded, as this fisherman took his wonted place at 
the oars, and sedately pulled in for the shore. Simon 
could never thereafter be such a man as he had been 
hitherto. For he had supposed he knew what it was 
to enter the service of Christ. He now perceived 
how far short of the reality he had reached. One 
day's education in the school of miracle had fully 
opened his eyes to the solemnity of his work, and 
the reality of his weakness. 

Returning to our study of this story, we find that 
when Jesus had said "Fear not" to Peter, he added 
also, "Follow me." Singular enough is the connec- 
tion between such comforts and counsels, all through 
the New Testament. The best motto for an entire 
Christian consecration in life is just this: " Fear not, 
but follow." 

Our English translation is poor and tame, although 
positively accurate, when compared with the ejacula- 
tory vigor of the expression Christ employed. What 



"hither! behind me!" 149 

is rendered in Mark's gospel, " Come ye after me," 
is the same as that which is rendered in Matthew's 
gospel, "Follow me." But the original words are 
simply two particles of calling — as it were, mere ges- 
tures of language — "Hither! Behind!" What our 
Lord exclaimed exactly was this: "Here! after Me!" 
No doubt he gesticulated as he spoke. So the lesson 
may go compactly together for all time. Two strokes 
of the hand, a beckon and a pointing, and two 
words of the Master — that settles forever a Christian's 
place; that demands instantly a Christian's acquies- 
cence; that ensures positively a Christian's success. 
Christ says to each one of us: "Come here; put 
yourself behind me!" 

It is evident, when we put alongside of Luke's nar- 
rative the few details offered by the other evangelists, 
that our Lord included in this call not only Simon 
and Andrew, but James and John also, their neigh- 
bors in Bethsaida, and their business partners upon 
the lake. It would appear as if the others of the 
party had occupied themselves with bringing in the 
mass of fishes which had been caught, and had rowed 
ashore with their load at once, leaving the remaining 
boat to come in more leisurely, Simon alone pulling 
oars. But by the time he arrived, they had got out 
their nets, which had been badly broken, and were 
mending their strands before spreading them again 
on the beach to dry. It is most likely that it was 
precisely at this moment Jesus said to them all, 
"Come ye after me." 

Let us for a few moments carefully contemplate that 



150 SIMON PETER: 

group of men in their fishing-clothes. They are the 
nucleus of the New Testament church. They are the 
first unconscious princes in Christendom. Two les- 
sons will come to our view, and will prove thoroughly 
worth the notice we give them; the peremptory call 
to entire consecration, and the immediate acquies- 
cence which it then met. 

We ought to know all those fishermen by this 
time. Let each one of them now come into the pic- 
ture; trace out every line in the sun-burnt features; 
we are to meet them often hereafter. Three of them 
will enter history especially this morning. That 
strong, sinewy figure, with gentle face and calm eye, 
his hair long — we have known it in all the paintings, 
though just where the likeness came from it would be 
difficult to tell — is easily seen to have a sort of family 
resemblance to the grave, sedate man, who in that 
loaded vessel just now pulled the heaviest oar; the 
one with the tranquil mien, with the crisp iron-gray 
beard, slow of speech, a practical, almost common- 
place talker, given to deeds rather than feelings or 
words, dignified even at this excited moment of in- 
tense wonderment, as he looks on the swirling mass 
of the forenoon spoils. These we recognize as James 
and John, the two sons of Zebedee. 

Now first they appear in the presence of Jesus, 
Master and Redeemer of them all, as Peter full of 
emotion, every muscle of his countenance showing 
the solemnity of the lesson he had just learned from 
the miracle, pulls his little boat up on the beach. 

These three men — when will they all be with Jesus 



"hither! behind me!" 151 

again? A solemn question, but with easy answer. 
On three more occasions of exciting interest; and 
then we may be sure there will be something quite 
as wonderful as anything they have seen to-day; 
when Christ shall raise the maiden daughter of Jairus 
from the dead; when the Son of God shall be trans- 
figured upon the summit of the mountain apart, and 
appear with Moses and Elias; when Jesus shall mourn 
and wrestle in agony beneath the olives of Gethse- 
mane; these same men, chosen three of chosen twelve, 
will be his sole companions. 

Oh, the unseen future which lies just before them all ! 
Most strangely those three great lives have floated up 
on the sea of eternal purpose, close to a Life which is 
greater still! They will never be entirely swept 
away from their Lord or each other again. For 
weal or woe, for silence or speech, for joy or sorrow, 
for earnest work or quiet resting, these four — Jesus, 
who is the Christ, Cephas, and the two Boanerges — 
are one. Jesus and Simon Peter in the end will be 
•crucified; James will be beheaded; John will still 
live on long enough to see all the rest die before him, 
and will await his summons in dreary exile upon a 
rock island of the sea. 

Not all of them surmise this now. The water 
shines luminously while the day advances; the sun- 
light falls over the white buildings on the shore, and 
traces short shadows on the sand ; the hills of Gadara 
across are brown and hazy; villagers are coming 
down for the wonderful news ; there stands Imman- 
ucl with the chosen three. 
7* 



152 SIMON PETER: 

We must move on with the story. Jesus said, 
" Come ye after me." They knew what that call 
meant, but they met it without hesitation: "And 
when they had brought their ships to land, they for- 
sook all and followed him." To these words, which 
Luke gives us, Matthew and Mark add one other, 
"straightway," most significant as showing the im- 
mediateness of their response to the peremptory 
summons: "they forsook all." 

So we find there was immense reach in that single 
word which the two evangelists use — "straightway." 
Without so much as appearing to look at each other 
for united consent, they broke their partnership, took 
up instant duty, and followed Christ as he said: "For 
ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many 
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not 
many noble, are called." These were only four in- 
conspicuous fishermen of Galilee. But what could 
they have done more, if they had been three Magi 
from Persia with their minds crowded with knowledge 
of the stars? All that is heroic in humanity was* 
stirred in their breasts. Yet not one sign of foolish 
bravado did they display. They made no ostenta- 
tious expressions of scorn of the world or its comforts. 
They were not an uneasy band of adventurers seek- 
ing a new excitement. Calmly these disciples gave 
all they had to hard work and sober duty. 

Such people move the race. They arouse the age 
in which they live. These fishermen did it. A lit- 
tle further on in the history, we read that the chief 
accusation leveled against such preachers among the 



"hither! behind me!" 153 

heathen, was that they turned the world upside down! 
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man 
will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up 
his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his 
life, shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for 
my sake shall find it." 



CHAPTER XV. 

FISHERS OF MEN. 

" Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw 
Simon and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the 
sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto 
them, Come ye after me, and I will make you become 
fishers of men." 

In this story, now becoming so familiar to us all, 
our Lord Jesus Christ offers a most beautiful illus- 
tration of the truth he is attempting to teach. He 
is fishing for men at the very moment he tells those 
fishermen he is going to make them fishers of men. 

Simon Peter is about to enter a new profession 
now, which after all will prove to be the old one with 
a changed purpose. This is announced to him by 
Jesus in the use of a figure of speech, the most signif- 
icant that could be employed. If we spend a few 
sentences in explaining the reason for such language, 
we shall be in better position for tracing out the 
strong analogies suggested by the art of fishing, when 
it is used as a symbol of Christian endeavor. 

We have made a careful distinction between Simon 
Peter's conversion and his commission to the public 
work of the ministry; for these two things were not 
the same to any of the disciples, nor to any of us 
are they the same. A great many people in the 
world are called to become Christians, who are not 
expected to become preachers. It is significant that 
our Lord retains here, as well as during nearly all 



FISHERS OF MEN. 155 

his association with Simon recorded in the New 
Testament, his old name, although he promised him 
the new one of Peter. He still looked upon him as 
the son of Jonas, and suffered no glamour of mystery 
to be flung around him. An official ordination to 
the apostolate as such is to be dated a while later, 
most likely, if we wish to be strictly accurate. But 
these fishermen withdrew from their occupations, and 
commenced service that very hour. 

If it ever be one's honest wish to do good to any 
man, to impart to him profitable instruction, he must 
persistently strive to fasten that which the man does 
not know upon something which he is sure he does 
know. Ready access requires, and ready tact will 
discover, an ally within the soul of each listener. 
Nothing alarms a rude or ignorant person so much 
as an abrupt reminder of his ignorance. Nothing 
propitiates a pupil or a hearer so surely as the rec- 
ognition of even some slight information he may be 
presumed to be possessed of concerning the matter 
in hand. There is wisdom in an old distich of poetry, 
which modern philosophers quote so often: 

" Men must be taught as though you taught them not, 
And things unknown proposed as things forgot." 

Thus, through all the Bible history we shall find 
an adroit ingenuity in use to bring men to duty, to 
show them their sin, and to make permanent impres- 
sion of God's commands upon their consciences and 
hearts. Figures are drawn from previous experi- 
ences. 



I56 SIMON PETER: 

The eastern Magi were astronomers; so they were 
guided to Jesus by a star. The Samaritan woman 
sat by the well whence she was accustomed to fetch 
water every day; and we remember that our Lord 
talked to her about the water of life. The greedy 
multitudes were thronging him for mere food, after 
the miracle of feeding the five thousand ; and we have 
all read that line discourse he preached subsequently 
to them concerning the bread that comes down from 
heaven. Even in the Old Testament, one of the 
psalms shows the analogy between king David's early 
occupation as a shepherd's lad in Bethlehem, and his 
later history when he pastured Israel like a flock : 

"He chose David also his servant, and took him 
from the sheepfolds: he brought him to feed Jacob 
his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed 
them according to the integrity of his heart; and 
guided them by the skilfulness of his hands." 

In like manner here: we, who have already traced 
out the details of the narrative, can plainly discern 
that Jesus was capturing Peter and Andrew, John 
and James, with a bright figure derived from their 
daily work. Some will like the words as they have 
been recorded by Luke better than those given us by 
Matthew or Mark in the same connection, though 
they signify very much the same thing: "And Jesus 
said unto Simon, Fear not: from henceforth thou shalt 
catch men." For in these there is a promise, as in 
all of them there is a commission. A man may be 
an angler by profession, and still find himself at times 
unsuccessful. Jesus here says emphatically to every 



FISHERS OF MEN. 1 57 

one of those disciples, as to Peter, "Thou shalt catch 
men." 

The ancient heretic, Julian, caviled at this simile, 
and often tried to be quite witty and sarcastic over it. 
He used to say: 

"Oh, yes: the clergy are all like enough to Peter 
in his business, if that is what apostolical succession 
consists in! Every one goes fishing for men; for 
they live on the men they catch just as he did on the 
fishes. They take silly creatures, and then they pre- 
tend they hear a voice, saying, 'Arise, Peter, kill 
and eat!'" 

Pretty sharp cavil that! Only it happens that the 
sneer finds a singular rebuttal and rebuke in the spe- 
cific term employed here by our Lord. This Greek 
word rendered "catch" occurs only twice in the New 
Testament — here, and in the epistle to Timothy. And 
a curious grouping of etymological forces in little 
particles gives to it an exact meaning which reverses 
the cavil; it signifies — to take in order to keep alive. 
In the other passage we recognize an acceptance of 
the position precisely; for it is translated thereto re- 
cover one's self out of the snare of the devil. So this 
indecent fling of a ribald tongue falls harmlessly to 
the ground: like some mean bird, that dashed against 
the window of a light-house and dropped down 
among the stones with its wing broken. 

It was in this redemptive sense that primitive Chris- 
tians accepted the figure. They actually called them- 
selves "fishes," to show they had been "taken" and 
saved. Perhaps there is no one among the modern 



158 SIMON PETER : 

discoveries, which antiquarian research has offered in 
our times, as having been found in the remains of 
those apostolic ages, more interesting than the epi- 
taphs etched on the stone slabs and tombs in the 
Catacombs beneath the city of Rome. Christians 
and heathen were buried there in promiscuous asso- 
ciation. Under those violent persecutions, which 
raged more than once, it was not considered safe to 
mark the graves of believers so as that the barbarians 
would know them. And yet such simple-hearted 
followers of the Lord Jesus wanted to recognize the 
faith in which their beloved friends died; so they 
drew the figure of a fish on the stone. 

Hence to them this had a double meaning. For 
the Greek name for fish is "Ichthus;" and these five 
letters {ch and th are one letter each in that alphabet) 
are the initials of five words, and they mean, "Jesus 
Christ, God's Son, Saviour." So this was one way 
in which, in such hard days, men loved to profess 
their belief, and even after the struggle of death rec- 
ord it cut deeply into the overhanging rocks under- 
ground; they were fishes caught and saved. 

Now when our Lord applied this name of "fishers 
of men" to workers like these before him, he put 
within the reach of their understanding — and within 
the reach of ours — all the aims and all the ingenuities 
of their handicraft, for the sake of awaking their im- 
aginations. Hence, we have the right to search after 
his entire instruction by an analysis. What is it to 
"catch men?" 

It would be interesting, perhaps, as a mere gratifi- 



FISHERS OF MEN. I 59 

cation of curiosity, to study how the mystic and 
spiritualizing commentators of all ages have fairly 
reveled in the luxurious wealth of real or fancied 
particulars, upon which they conceive this most sim- 
ple figure to turn. They sagely inquire about the 
forms of the nets, and the shapes of the meshes — the 
multitudinous kinds of hooks, lines, and baits — until 
one is wearied by the array of professional technics. 
It will not be to any advantage for us now to go fur- 
ther in the investigation of analogies than just to men- 
tion these two: the purpose that all true fishers 
cherish, and the temper they keep. 

What do people go a-fishing for ? As to purpose, 
there needs orte statement alone to make it clear. 
Fishermen aim and expect to catch fish. Hardly any 
calling in the world allows of so slight a margin. 
There seems to be only one thing in it : men fish for 
fish. 

The experts, who are best acquainted with the art 
of angling, as applied to the serious work of bread- 
winning for a family, have a perfect contempt for all 
new-fangled notions, and all fastidious theories of too 
much civilization. They insist that modern fishes 
are precisely the same creatures that primitive fishes 
were in the next year after the flood. So the day of 
experiment has passed already, and the matter has 
been reduced to a science. Patent flies and ingenious 
spoons receive no sort of welcome from those 
weather-beaten men who get a living off the water. 
They labor, too much in dead earnest to trifle with 
feathers or toy with a piece of silver. 



l6o SIMON PETER! 

Nor are even the inexperienced willing to admit any- 
other estimate. Our summer amusements demand the 
acknowledgment of the necessity. One may drive up 
to the verandah after his day's adventure, and all 
his wise boasting about beautiful sunshine, excellent 
exercise, pleasant company, crystal atmosphere, de- 
lightful rowing, goes for naught. The moment his 
enthusiasm lapses into silence even for a breath, some 
quiet questioner will be sure to come up and touch 
his basket with those embarrassing words, "What did 
you get ?" And if the pouch is empty, then the day 
is irretrievably lost, the taunt is against him, and the 
reproach is acknowledged just. 

This point, prosaic and ordinary as it seems to be, 
is pivotal to the figure of our Lord. These men were 
surrendering forever a definite calling, the rules of 
which they knew. Putting the new office of preach- 
ing the gospel to sinners under the guise of their old 
occupation reduced it to their plain understanding. 
They must have comprehended absolutely from this 
moment that they were going out fishing in the tur- 
bulent waters of this world for souls. 

The gospel has no end or aim, that can be possi- 
ble to it, besides this of the salvation of men. All 
Christian effort looks to that and nothing else. 
Hence each worker of intelligence ought to be on the 
alert to go where fishes are, if he fishes for men. 
For he has not been sent out merely to flirt the line, 
or lay the pretty decoy, or plant the net ; he has 
been sent for souls ; the day is lost, if he does not 
bring in souls of men. All toying, all pleasure-seek- 



FISHERS OF MEN. l6l 

ing, is wide of this errand. No angler ever sat under 
the flicker of the torch, or rowed beneath the gloom 
of the midnight, no man ever floated over unpromis- 
ing waters, with a serener faith, or with a more 
earnest, more downright, sense of business in his 
mind, than these true laborers in gospel work. If 
they do not see souls coming within their reach, if 
they do not take souls, time is lost, skill is lost, souls 
are lost, and they are lost. 

Said Matthew Henry: "I would think it greater 
happiness for myself to gain even one soul to Christ, 
than mountains of gold and silver ; if I do not gain 
souls, I shall enjoy all other gains with very little sat- 
isfaction." So likewise said John Bunyan : " In my 
preaching, I could not be satisfied, unless some fruits 
did appear in my work." Said Doddridge, also : " I 
long for the conversion of souls more sensibly than 
for anything besides ; methinks I could labor for it 
not only, but die for it with pleasure." This is what 
all fishers of men agree in asserting. And it ought 
to be true of each one of them as it was of Alleine, 
concerning whom his biographer remarks, with 
pardonable enthusiasm in speech, " He was infi- 
nitely and insatiably greedy of the conversion of souls." 

Add to this, now, some few illustrations as to the 
temper in which this great work should be carried on, 
and our conceptions of Christ's figure are complete. 
It includes patience, alertness, and tact. 

Patience comes first. Enthusiasts with the hook 
and line assure us that nothing is more trying to one's 
temper than to lose a fish, after having waited for an 



1 62 SIMON PETER : 

hour to get it fairly hold of the bait ; and yet, no- 
thing is more fatal to success than losing temper 
under the failure. This much every preacher in a 
pulpit, and every Christian worker in a community, 
knows for himself: when a long struggle of faith 
and prayer has at last seemed to give promise of a 
soul, there is no more discouraging experience than 
just that of the disappointment under some freak of 
human perversity, or some evil and deadly wile of 
the adversary, that effects a sudden release. 

But it does no good to be provoked. Reproaches 
would avail no more in restoring the grand result 
than a spiteful flinging of stones into the water would 
help in rehooking a lost fish. 

We have learned that the word " catch " in this 
narrative is found in one other place. In that pas- 
sage, which had better be adduced now in detail, and 
in its connection, the apostle gives this pertinent 
counsel, covering the whole process of dealing with 
men : 

" And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but 
be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient : in 
meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; 
if God peradventure will give them repentance to the 
acknowledging of the truth, and that they may re- 
cover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who 
are taken captive by him at his will." 

Old Doctor Miller used to tell his students this : 
" Young men, the very earliest condition of success 
in the pulpit is civility." We cannot force people to 
act even in their own interest ; tranquil forbearance 



FISHERS OF MEN. 163 

and persistency will sometimes retrieve a. failure that 
violence and denunciation would only fasten for the 
future. 

Then comes alertness : " They watch for your 
souls." In the story now under our eye, Simon 
Peter intimated that it would do no good to go out 
on Lake Gennesaret in the forenoon, nor to cast a 
net in deep water ; fish did not run at such times nor 
in such places. He was right ; and that was what 
proved the working of the miracle. He had been a 
diligent observer, and so showed he knew that busi- 
ness. Circumstances have much to do with promise 
of success. 

That principle would hold absolutely, if any one 
was exhaustively acquainted with this other business 
of saving souls. In the world of mind, however, the 
moods of men are as various as the men themselves. 
And it is not everybody that knows everything. 
Providence may be relied upon to give us a chance, 
if only we keep looking for it and waiting for it. 
Crossing London Bridge, possibly a few of us have 
particularly noticed now and then an old man, seat- 
ed quietly upon one of the piers, rod in hand, and 
beside him miscellanies of living bait and curious flies 
of feather. When we returned at nightfall, there he 
was still, undisturbed by the tumult and roar of the 
thousands of carriages and hacks. Perhaps he made 
no show in his basket; perhaps, when we questioned 
him, he confessed he had caught no spoils as yet, he 
denied any charge of personal unskilfulness, he told 
us how he had been trying a score of ingenious de- 



1 64 simon peter: 

coys, he forced us to admire his assiduity; but, 
above everything else, he sent us away from his side 
pondering his cheerful words, as we parted : ''Well, 
if I keep it up, I always catch a fish of one sort if I 
do not of another, before I start for home." 

Such a spirit as that will in the end bring in fruits 
of success. Try one thing, and then try another ; 
then expect one person will be brought in, or an- 
other ; for that is the apostolic example : 

" For though I be free from all men, yet have I 
made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the 
more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that 
I might gain the Jews ; to them that are under 
the law, as under the law, that I might gain them 
that are under the law ; to them that are without 
law, as without law (being not without law to God, 
but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them 
that are without law. To the weak became I as 
weak, that I might gain the weak : I am made all 
things to all men, that I might by all means save 
some." 

Next comes tact. In this tumultuous life of ours, 
it is the part of a wise man to keep himself informed 
as to opportunities of usefulness. There are felicities 
of time — place — words — occasion — every one of 
which is worth a day's work to learn. All waters 
are not alike. All fishes are not the same. Some 
seasons are better than others. And, when boister- 
ous talkers are around, less fuss and more fishing will 
better fill the basket. 

To know how to do a thing is one prodigious step 



FISHERS OF MEN. 1 65 

towards the doing of it. Oh, if we could force our- 
selves to gain a fitting conception of what it is to save 
a soul — how difficult and delicate — just to save one 
soul, we should be content to skill ourselves passion- 
ately and alertly for years, if need be, in angling for it ! 
We must learn human nature — other people's and 
our own. We must grow apt to note the signs of 
spiritual weather. We must become discerning and 
quick and enthusiastic. For again let it be said — 
and again — that all is lost, unless in the end we save 
men. It matters nothing at all what fails one mo- 
ment, if something else succeeds the next. Only 
we are to persist in trying expedients of every sort. 
Said the sainted Brainerd, making a review of his 
busy years : " I cared not where or how I lived, or 
what hardships I passed through, so that I could but 
gain souls to Christ. While I was asleep I dreamed 
of such things, and when I waked the first thing I 
thought of was this, of winning souls for Christ." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SIMON.'S WIFE'S MOTHER. 

After his marriage, Simon Peter made his home in 
Capernaum. One day there was in this disciple's 
history in which events of the greatest magnitude 
thickened around him. Never had he a Sabbath 
more crowded with instruction, or more plainly de- 
signed to wield an important influence over his whole 
life. For, after the miracle in his boat, he was 
granted the unusual distinction of another miracle in 
his house on one of his family. 

The mother of his wife was exceedingly ill ; Jesus 
rebuked the fever ; she was cured instantly, and took 
up her duties in the household at once. 

" And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered 
into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was 
taken with a great fever ; and they besought him for 
her. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever ; 
and it left her. And immediately she arose and min- 
istered unto them." 

It will strike everyone's mind that this record is 
surprisingly brief for an incident so august. The in- 
struction of it, however, is unusually extensive upon 
some unexpected points where we need help. 

Let us ascertain what it teaches concerning this 
noted apostle, Simon Peter. Here comes out the fact 
that he was a married man, and his mother-in-law 
lived with him in the same dwelling. We might 



SIMON'S WIFE'S MOTHER. 1 6/ 

touch such an incident in the biography of any other 
individual with the mere comment of approval, 
"Marriage is honorable in all," and then pass on to 
matters of greater spiritual interest. In relation to 
any one else it would be necessary to do nothing ex- 
cept quote the command : " Let every man have his 
own wife, and let every woman have her own 
husband." 

And then we might find it to edification to draw the 
picture of the honest fisherman's home, and show 
how well the son of Jonas was fitted to his new lot 
as soon as he was called to be a preacher and officer 
in the church of Christ. Everyone knows the text: 

"This is a true saying, If a man desire the office 
of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then 
must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, 
sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to 
teach; one that ruleth well his own house, having his 
children in subjection with all gravity; for if a man 
know not how to rule his own house, how shall he 
take care of the church of God?" 

But just here we are met with the astonishing state- 
ment by some that celibacy is the true saintly con- 
dition for all ministers in the New Testament church. 
And this is enforced by a great hierarchy which open- 
ly pronounces such as do not adhere to it "heretics," 
at the same moment when it proclaims this familiar 
fisherman to have been the first pope ! Furthermore, 
It was deliberately put on record some six hundred 
years after Peter was dead and buried, that he di- 
vorced his wife on his entering the priesthood. As 



1 68 stmon peter: 

a proof of this, it is urged now from this very story 
that his mother-in-law, and not his wife, arose and 
did the ministering to the men. Such people would 
have us believe that Simon had put her away during 
those two or three days that had elapsed since the 
miraculous draught of fishes, and that this was his 
first Sabbath alone! Perhaps it is just as well to 
leave this absurd inconsistency to be explained by 
those ecclesiastics who hold marriage to be one of 
the sacraments. 

Then, after about the same lapse of time, it was en- 
joined upon all ecclesiastics in the papal communion 
that they should live lives of perpetual seclusion from 
domestic ties, and reject marriage as a snare. These 
enactments were put in force in the eleventh century, 
since which date all priests of every order, so it is said, 
have been forbidden to marry. It was what Paul 
the apostle predicted, to be sure: but he enumerated 
the prohibition of marriage as among the character- 
istics of an apostate church, which denied the faith 
once delivered to the saints: 

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the 
latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving 
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 
speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience 
seared with an hot iron; forbidding to marry, and 
commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath 
created to be received with thanksgiving of them 
which believe and know the truth." 

That celibacy is indeed a "doctrine of devils" no 
pne can deny who has read the testimony of such 



SIMON'S WIFE'S MOTHER. 1 69 

as have known the private annals of nunneries and 
monastic institutions the world over for near a thou- 
sand years. The results of such unscriptural teach- 
ing have been simply appalling. Sensuality and 
lust, vice and villany of every sort, have come 
invariably in its train to show its falseness. 

But leaving the perversion, and returning to the fact, 
it is offered at once as a most interesting question: 
What do we know of this woman who was cured ? 
And we are constrained to reply, that no record of 
her history appears anywhere in the Scriptures be- 
fore or after this brief paragraph. Indeed, her 
whole importance historically is owing to her rela- 
tionship to this famous apostle. It rarely happens 
that a great man's name strikes back through two 
generations; but it is a palpable fact here, that all 
the reputation given to this woman over the others 
healed by miracle in Capernaum rises from the inci- 
dent of her having been the mother of Simon Peter's 
wife, and living with him. 

But there is something to be said concerning the 
wife herself, and this is of special importance. There 
is reason to believe that she remained a most faith- 
ful companion and fellow-worker with Peter, whom 
Paul always calls " Cephas," down to the end of her 
life. For in one of Paul's epistles an allusion is 
made to her; he says, " Have we not power to lead 
about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and 
as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?" This 
was written more than twenty years after Christ's 
resurrection, when Peter was an old man. As a 



i ;o simon peter: 

comment upon the verse, Clement of Alexandria 
adds: "Peter and Philip had children, and both took 
about their wives in order that they might act as 
their assistants in ministering to women at their own 
homes; by their means the doctrine of the Lord 
penetrated without scandal into the privacy of the 
women's apartments." 

Among all the legends of the Apostle Peter there 
is found, now and then, one which makes for truth, 
and confirms the Scripture narratives. And while 
we may refuse to accept these as records of actual 
fact, we are at liberty to quote them as interesting 
incidents, which in some particulars are likely to be 
true. It is stated that this devout and excellent 
woman closed her eventful life by martyrdom in the 
city of Rome ; that she was well known in the primi- 
tive Church; that she had a daughter, called Petron- 
illa; and that her own name was Concordia, or, as 
some say, Perpetua. Even the circumstances of her 
death are detailed. And it is related, as an illustra- 
tion of the marriage of that blessed pair, and the 
perfect agreement between them in those things 
which were dearest to both, that at the last solemn 
moment, when Peter beheld his wife led out to her 
suffering, he "rejoiced at her calling of the Lord, 
and her conveyance to her heavenly home; so that 
he cried out to her encouragingly and comfortingly, 
addressing her by name, 'Oh, remember thou the 
Lord ! ' Thus she was supported in constancy to the 
end." 

Now comes another question: Did this Christian 



simon's wife's mother. 171 

woman herself have any children? It is best to leave 
the discussion as to the relationship of Mark for an- 
other occasion, which will be presented at the time 
of our study of the gospel which bears his name. 
But the final salutation of Peter's epistle contains 
these familiar words : "The church that is at Baby- 
lon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so 
doth Marcus, my son." This passage has always 
been admitted to be obscure. Many of the soundest 
scholars believe the introduction of the words in 
Italics, as they appear in our version, to be unauthor- 
ized; they say there is no reference to a church, but 
that the term rendered "elected together" refers to 
a woman, who sends salutation. Of course the like- 
lihood is that this was Simon's wife, who, being with 
him, and being a Christian also, naturally added her 
greeting to his. And, furthermore, they urge that 
the expression in the same connection, "Marcus my 
son," is literal, and means "my son Mark." That is 
to say, many persons think that the evangelist Mark 
was the actual son of the Apostle Peter. The New 
Revision renders the whole verse thus: "She that is 
in Babylon, elect together with you, saluteth you; 
and so doth Mark my son." 

Mention has been made of the legend of "Petron- 
illa;" and most readers of the "History of Sacred 
and Legendary Art " will recall the account as it 
there appears in the translation from the Latin. 

Thus the story runs : The Apostle Peter had a 
daughter born in lawful wedlock, who accompanied 
him in his journey from the East. Being at Rome 



172 SIMON PETER: 

with him, she fell sick of a grievous infirmity, which 
deprived her of the use of her limbs. And it hap- 
pened that as the disciples were at meat with him in 
his house, one said to him: 

" Master, how is it that thou, who healest the 
infirmities of others, dost not heal thy daughter 
Petronilla?" 

"It is good for her to remain sick," replied her 
father, perhaps thinking of the discipline which the 
pain might bring to her. 

But, that they all might see the power that was in 
the word of God, he commanded her to get up and 
serve them at table — which she did. And having 
done so, she lay down again, helpless as before. A 
few years afterward, however, being perfected by 
her long suffering, and praying fervently, the maiden 
was permanently healed. 

To this incident is added another. Petronilla was 
wonderfully fair; and Valerius Flaccus, a young and 
noble Roman, who was a heathen, became enamored 
of her beauty, and sought her to be his wife. He be- 
ing very powerful, she feared to refuse him ; she there- 
fore desired him to return in three days, and prom- 
ised that he should then carry her home. But she 
prayed earnestly to be delivered from this peril; and 
when Flaccus returned in three days with great pomp, 
for the celebration of the marriage, he found her dead. 
The company of nobles who attended him carried her 
to the grave, in which they laid her, crowned with 
roses. And Flaccus lamented greatly. 

It is refreshing to turn from the mere poetry of a 



SIMON'S WIFE'S MOTHER. 1 73 

legend to the serene majesty of history. And we 
come back to the inspired record in order now to note 
the details of this miracle, and show in what particu- 
lars it is a parable for the spiritual cure of souls. 

It would seem that this fisherman, now become a 
disciple, had kept an open house for his Bethsaida 
neighbors; for we read that Zebedee's sons, James 
and John, were with Simon and Andrew on this re- 
membered occasion. They had not yet "forsaken" 
this home, but they had certainly consecrated it to the 
Master's occupation and use. 

Luke tells us that this woman was sick of a "great 
fever;" he was a physician, and he knew she was in 
extreme peril. Mark says, "Anon they tell Jesus of 
her." Then Luke adds again, "They besought him 
for her." Matthew relates that our Lord "touched her 
hand." To that Mark adds that he "lifted her up;" 
and Luke goes onto say, "He rebuked the fever." 
Then Mark states that the sickness "immediately left 
her;" and Luke adds further that <( she arose imme- 
diately and ministered unto them." Thus, by compar- 
ing all the accounts, we get the whole story. And 
now is there a lesson in almost every particular. 

Was this woman sick of a great fever? Then we see 
how Christ is the only help, but always the sure help, 
in desperate cases. He is able to save bodies and 
souls "to the uttermost." 

Did the disciples go and tell Jesus of her? Then 
we may note the advantage of faith in the divine and 
sovereign Saviour. "None but Jesus can do helpless 
sinners good." 



174 SIMON PETER I 

Are we told that those home-friends besought the 
Lord in her behalf ? Then we learn how necessary is 
fervent prayer. ''For all these things will I be in- 
quired of by the house of Israel." 

Did our Saviour touch this woman's hand, and touch 
it only, for her cure? Then observe how delicate is 
the ministration of divine grace in the gospel, and be 
gentle with souls. 

Was it the interposition of other people which 
availed to bring this sick creature to health ? Then 
how fine is the office of human means and instruments 
with God. There is really a glorious share in the 
work of saving souls which he permits. 

Do we notice that this woman was also lifted up 
by Jesus? The miracle is a parable; God never lays 
a commandment on any soul which he does not aid 
that soul in performing for him. 

Did the cured woman rise at once to begin her 
grateful service? It is by that we know her healing 
was perfectly done. The good Lord never leaves 
body or soul half delivered from ill. 

Was Simon's wife's mother satisfied to minister to 
Jesus Christ right off and right there? Then think 
how much valuable time some impatient people waste 
in trying to find a field of work for Christ, when most 
likely the best task lies nearest at hand. This woman 
entered "the ministry" just as truly as Simon Peter 
did ; he preached, and she served ; that was ministry. 

Were these wonderful privileges misused and per- 
verted by Capernaum ? Then let all the world know 
and remember that it is pre-eminently a dangerous 



SIMON'S WIFE'S MOTHER. 1 75 

thing to do, this disregard of the merciful manifesta- 
tions of the divine presence among men. This fa- 
vored town called itself, "The City by the Sea." Lof- 
tily situated upon what may have been the sunny 
slopes of that exact elevation where Christ delivered 
the Sermon on the Mount, it heard the Beatitudes, 
but rejected the blessings. The people sawthe mira- 
cles, but turned away from the truth they were 
wrought to confirm ; so the curse fell. 



8* 



CHAPTER XVII. 

JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED. 

All along through the Scripture record thus far, we 
have noticed that the daily lessons learned by Simon 
Peter were growing apace in majesty and impressive - 
ness, as his divine Master advanced in the disclosure 
of his supreme wisdom and power. Jesus had gen- 
erously relieved poverty in numberless instances, 
soothed pain and suffering, healed the sick, and for- 
given sin to the penitent. 

But further than this he had never as yet gone. 
There was a solitary realm of dread conflict he had not 
before entered that he now approached. The last 
enemy to be destroyed was Death. 

When the hour of an attack so solemn and a tri- 
umph so vast awaited his action, it was meet that he 
should select from the chosen twelve a chosen three to 
become his witnesses. And these, fortunately, were 
the old friends and Bethsaida neighbors, Peter, John, 
and James, whom we have learned to know so well. 

It appears that Jesus had been invited with his dis- 
ciples to a feast in the house of a conspicuous, but 
not very reputable, taxgatherer in Capernaum. 
While he was sitting at meat, there came a man to 
him in great anguish. We are not informed who he 
was; mention is made of him only as an officer in the 
synagogue, a Jew, very likely of rank and influence, 
perhaps one of the same delegated committee of elders 
in Israel who had come beseeching Jesus to interpose 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED. 1 77 

in behalf of the Roman centurion's servant some time 
previous. If he had been successful in securing so 
extraordinary a favor before for another, he would 
now certainly feel the braver and the freer in asking 
one for himself of the same sort. 

It must have seriously mortified this magnificent 
ruler, however, to be obliged to go after a Nazarene 
prophet in the house of Levi the publican. But that 
has always been the way of procedure. The haughty 
have to bend, the rich have to surrender, and the gos- 
pel is generally to be found earliest in the hearts and 
the homes of the most unpromising men. "Blessed 
are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven." 

This afflicted father was in most violent agitation. 
All of those slight confusions we find in the record 
may be traced plainly to this. One of the evangel- 
ists says he "fell down at Jesus' feet;" another men- 
tions that he "besought him greatly;" Matthew states 
that he "worshiped him." At any rate, it is evi- 
dent that he announced his trouble somewhat, inco- 
herently. He had an invalid daughter — she was all 
the child he had — twelve years of age. It appears 
that one of the disciples heard him say that his des- 
perate case admitted no delay whatsoever: his little 
girl was "even now dead;" another thought he said 
that she "lay a-dying;" and then a third quotes the 
expression, "at the point of death." 

Men must be hard pressed for arguments and 
cavils against inspired history, and are liable to 
overstrain their point in questioning the accuracy of 



178 SIMON peter: 

the Scriptures, when they force themselves to present 
these mere touches of human nature as discrepancies 
and contradictions among the sacred writers. Why, 
such a man would be likely to keep talking all the 
time ; and what he would say, in the hurry of the 
crowd, in the rush of his own excited feeling, and in 
the confusion of rapid and anxious speech, was that 
his dear child was dead or dying; indeed, he could 
not tell which ; she was at the last gasp, for what he 
knew, when he left her bedside; most probably 
she was gone now ; but would the good Rabbi come 
over and just see if anything could be done ; per- 
haps she could be saved yet ! 

" My little daughter lieth at the point of death ; I 
pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she 
may be healed; and she shall live." 

Did anybody ever know our Lord Jesus Christ to 
disappoint or deny one who trusted him truly, and 
asked for help? Of course, he started instantly from 
the table, though it was much like leaving a feast 
for a funeral. And now, with our knowledge of 
what happened, it is not hard to say whether he did 
not fairly convert that identical funeral into a festival 
better than ever was set by Jairus himself before in 
his sumptuous house. 

The curious expectancy of the people around him, 
who had witnessed the demonstration and heard the 
request, was aroused to the highest pitch. The dis- 
ciples went with him, and they were followed also by 
great numbers of the by-standers. The moment he 
pushed out into the street, " much people thronged him." 



JAIRUS 1 DAUGHTER RAISED. 1 79 

Just here the swift current of the Bible narrative is 
interrupted suddenly by a new incident, out of which 
comes another miracle. Apparently on the very step, 
Jesus meets a woman in deepest distress. We can- 
not now pause to rehearse the tale ; it is of interest 
enough to call for our patient study by itself. 

Yet, though our Lord hesitated but an instant, 
every falling sand in the glass of time was to Jairus 
more precious than gold ; a single minute of arrest 
might turn the scale of life and death. A real admi- 
ration for him springs up in every mind, because of his 
amazing fortitude in so awful an exigency. Not one 
word of deprecation falls from his lips ; no fretfulness 
of spirit or gesture showing disapprobation is put on 
record ; he simply waits his turn. 

Now that we know the end, we can see that it was 
better that this miracle of healing should come in at 
that precise point in order to deepen the impression 
upon the minds of the fickle populace who witnessed 
it, and in order to quicken Jairus' faith by testing it 
almost to the limit of endurance. A fine reward of 
grace eventually was reached for this forbearance. 
No one ever ventured upon God his dearest interests, 
holding his trust unbroken, without reason for grati- 
tude by and by. 

" It is good that a man should both hope and 
quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. The Lord 
is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that 
seeketh him." 

The company now started on again, and hope be- 
gan to revive anew in the heart of that distressed 



ISO SIMON PETER: 

father. If only the great Master would get there in 
time ! But the stop which the procession already had 
made had been long enough for some one, hastening 
with a mournful announcement from the scene of 
affliction, to bring rapid tidings to the ruler that all 
was over ; the maiden had breathed away her life ; 
it was of no use to go on any more : 

"Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the 
Master any further ? " 

Our Saviour, alert in listening, caught this solemn 
word the instant it was spoken ; and, before any harm- 
ful doubt could possess the man's mind, gave him one 
memorable sentence of encouragement: 

"Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made 
whole." 

Some very singular uses of individual terms here 
are worth a brief comment, as throwing picturesque- 
ness into the story. We are told that Jesus " heard " 
the message sent from home to Jairus, although it 
was not addressed to him, nor even intended for him. 
Exactly, the word is overheard ; and it occurs only 
this once in the Bible. One of our best scholars ren- 
ders it thus : " Having casually overheard what was 
spoken." 

Then, too, the expression, " Trouble not the Mas- 
ter," is exceedingly graphic. The people looked 
upon Jesus as an itinerant evangelist — a Messianic 
teacher and expositor — and so gave to him the usual 
name of Rabbi, which means Master. The word that 
is rendered trouble also occurs only here and in one 
other place, where it is employed with exactly the 



JAIRUS DAUGHTER RAISED. l8l 

same meaning and purpose. The centurion, whose 
servant Jesus healed, sent messengers to him to say : 
" Lord, trouble not thyself." It signifies fret or worry; 
indeed, it finds its precise equivalent in our colloquial- 
ism " bother." 

Hence, the naturalness of this scene strikes us at 
once. An anxious member of the ruler's family 
comes up to him and says privately: " The little girl 
is dead ; do not worry — or bother — the Rabbi any 
further; it is of no use now." Our Lord overheard 
this sad suggestion, and answered, " Fear not ; only 
believe !" 

In truth, Jairus' faith needed this stimulant ; for 
when they reached the house the circumstances were 
desperate. Before their feet were inside of the door 
their ears were greeted by the sound of the hired 
mourners' music wildly ringing through the apart- 
ment. Quick in the instincts of their ordinary trade, 
they were already up and alive, playing noisily upon 
their exasperating instruments. 

These " minstrels" at Eastern funerals make what 
we should call most dreadful commotion. They are 
almost always alert for employment. Mourning cus- 
toms are merely conventional in those countries, 
and are governed by local fashion. In some cases 
professional weepers beat their breasts with frantic 
gesticulations, filling the house with lamentations in 
poetry and prose. They recite the virtues of the de- 
parted, and bewail their melancholy loss, and seek to 
harrow up the feelings of the standers-by. Occasion- 
ally they cut their own flesh with weapons, and rend 



1 82 SIMON PETER: 

their garments in mock despair. The instruments 
they use for accompaniment are very simple ; mere 
flutes or reeds, making with their voices forlorn mono- 
tones of moaning in a strident and shrill key. It is 
said by some, however, that on great occasions they 
bring even trumpets or cornets of brass, and seem 
determined to force sorrow with uproar. 

They must have expected good fees in this in- 
stance, for they were on hand betimes, and exceed- 
ingly hard at their work when Jesus arrived. And we 
have one hint that they were especially angry in 
their scorn at his words when he bade them away. 
He had forcibly to eject them when he entered the 
chamber of the dead. 

All this needs to be borne in mind carefully, for it 
becomes valuable in relation to a doubt which has 
been started. Some few expositors have seemed to 
understand that our Lord's words are to be taken 
literally, when he exclaimed in expostulation : 

"Why make ye this ado, and weep? — the damsel 
is not dead, but sleepeth." 

One of the most famous of modern preachers de- 
liberately considers this maiden's case one of "sus- 
pended animation," and discharges the meaning and 
force of our Lord's miracle as a mere " restoration 
from apparent death ;" then he employs the incident 
as a text to preach a sermon from in behalf of the 
Humane Society, that proposes to resuscitate all 
people half dead from drowning, or asphyxiated from 
having inhaled noxious vapors in the mines ! 

How strange it seems to find any misunderstand- 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED. 183 

ing lodged upon so plain a statement as this ! The 
messenger who met the procession said this maiden 
was dead. The whole company of by-standers joined 
in to laugh Jesus to scorn when they thought he 
spoke literally, " knowing that she was dead." So 
when we are told explicitly, "The damsel arose," the 
word is employed which over and over again is ap- 
plied to undoubted resurrection. " Her spirit came 
again" — so the record reads. If this maiden was 
only lying in an unconscious or comatose state, why 
did not Jesus inform the agonized father of that fact, 
and relieve his unnecessary solicitude and suffering ? 
Why did he not correct the messenger of evil tid- 
ings : 

" Oh, this child is only in a trance ; she will re- 
cover soon !" 

No ; this was Christ's way of declaring that to the 
believers he loves death is but a slumber; the sure 
waking is just beyond it. He said the same thing on 
the way to Bethany with his disciples : 

"Our friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I go that I may 
awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples : 
'Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.' Howbeit 
Jesus spake of his death ; but they thought 
that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. 
Then said Jesus unto them plainly : Lazarus is 
dead." 

So he said now that a dead damsel was asleep ; and 
what he intended to say was that hereafter, under 
the Gospel, the old despairing notion of death was 
utterly abolished ; the dawn was just ready behind 



1 84 simon peter: 

the darkness, the radiant morning beyond the solemn 
night? 

A most interesting picture now rises upon our 
imagination as We return to the narrative. The dwell- 
ing is at last decorously silent and tranquil. No 
evidence of that ruler's faith could be offered more 
convincing than the unquestioning acquiescence he 
displays in all the instant assumption of authority by 
Jesus there under his own roof. The true master of 
the house is Christ from the moment he enters. And 
the proprietor interposes no word of prohibition when 
the vociferous minstrels are interrupted, nor even 
does he check their departure when they are finally 
turned out of their work and out of the dwelling. 
He knew they would not be wanted. 

They enter the chamber of death ; they gather 
around the bed. Central in the group stands the 
Son of God. Near him are the awe-struck parents. 
Behind him are three of the disciples: James, quiet 
and retiring ; John, earnest and affectionate; 
Peter, more eager and forward, to see what is 
going on. Simon's education will progress by 
one vast advance to-day, for he will behold God's 
glory ! 

Seven persons only are in that room, and one of 
them is the maiden dead. They had most likely 
taken off the simple jewels she was beginning to 
wear, and removed the small string of silver coins she 
was wont to braid around her forehead : nobody im- 
agined she was ever any more to need a dowry after 
this. In calm simplicity, she now lies, all faults and 



JAIRUS DAUGHTER RAISED. 1 85 

foibles forgotten, straightened upon the couch where 
she died. We cannot help quoting the Russian 
proverb: "Two hands upon the breast, and labor is 
past." This small girl does not appear as a mere 
child in our eyes just now; for the King of Terrors 
has crowned her with the majesty of her inalienable 
womanhood, and thrown around her person the 
peerless dignity of death. 

At once to the head of the bed came the weary 
father — that anxious, well-to-do, but helpless man, 
loving his only child with all his heart. One look 
towards him from his desolate wife, bending over the 
maiden, told him truly earthly hope was at an end. 

But now Jesus, the Nazarene Rabbi, drew near; 
he took the inanimate damsel by the hand, and said 
unto her : 

" TalitJia-cumi 'j '" which is, being interpreted, 
"Damsel! (I say unto thee) arise!" 

Ah, we might have known we should hear the 
sweet accents of that Aramaic language now ! When 
in the coasts of Decapolis they once brought to 
Christ one that was deaf, and had an impediment in 
his speech, he touched his tongue and put his fingers 
into his ears, and, looking up to heaven, he sighed, 
and said, " Ephphatlia, that is, Be opened." This 
was the language which arrested Saul on his way to 
Damascus; for Jesus called him out of heaven in its 
words of pathetic challenge, " Why persecutest thou 
me!" Even when on the cross during the three 
hours' darkness Jesus " cried with a loud voice, say- 
ing, Eloi, Eloiy lama sabachtliatii f which is, being 



I 86 SIMON PETER: 

interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me?" Thus, whenever our Lord grew un- 
usually or unutterably solemn, in the greatest mo- 
ments of his history, he fell back upon the touching 
patois of Palestine, and used the terms of the mother- 
tongue in which he was born. 

The remaining details of the story we are rehears- 
ing are exceedingly graphic. Death yielded up his 
prey at the demand of one mightier than he. The 
soul of that damsel came back again to this world. 
Her recovery was immediate and complete. "She 
"arose, and walked." Her parents were overwhelmed. 
They became "astonished with a great astonishment." 
Mark's words are, '' They stood in avast ecstasy." 
It is likely theirdelight was embarrassed by the depth 
of their amazement. When the Lord so suddenly 
turned again the captivity of their distress, they were 
like them that dreamed. 

This bewilderment of awe-struck wonder mingled 
with fond affection was interrupted in a tranquil way 
by Jesus himself, whose commonplace wisdom called 
them to themselves with two suggestions. 

He told the parents that they ought to give the 
feeble child something to eat. Perhaps he feared 
that some caviler would report she was not really 
alive after all, only apparently resuscitated. More 
likely, however, he desired to evidence that her 
restoration was perfect from the moment he spoke 
to her; she was not only living, but was well, and 
might now go on harmlessly with life as usual. 
After her long fast and the wasting of her illness, the 



JAIRUS DAUGHTER RAISED. 1S7 

girl would need some sort of strengthening sus- 
tenance. 

Then after that Christ commanded those around 
him, who witnessed the miracle, that they should not 
noise it abroad. Let the whole matter be kept quiet. 
Possibly he desired to restrain enthusiastic demon- 
strations on the part of his followers, and keep them 
from unnecessarily arousing the Jews' animosity and 
precipitating upon him their violence. His hour 
had not yet come. He may have wished also to 
moderate the fanatical superstition which would con- 
stitute him a mere wonder-worker, and would belittle 
his teaching with new clamors for more miracles. 
He was at the moment surrounded with village mul- 
titudes. A mighty concourse of Capernaum people 
were ready to exclaim again, "We have seen strange 
things to-day ! " He needed time now for patiently 
instructing his followers. 

Let us bear in mind that among the rest Simon 
Peter stood at our Lord's side during all these events. 
He had overheard the messenger out in the street 
saying that this maiden was dead; he had noticed 
what a temptation that announcement had offered to 
Jairus' faith to surrender: now what a lesson of 
triumph he learned ! Really, it would seem as if here 
was where he got the fine thoughts he puts in his 
First Epistle, when he encourages believers to hold 
tenaciously to their confidence, no matter what 
should happen ever: 

"Ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season (if 
need be) ye are in heaviness through manifold temp- 



1 88 SIMON PETER: 

tations: that the trial of your faith, being much 
more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it 
be tried with fire, might be found^unto praise, and 
honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ." 

And one thing more did Simon Peter learn on this 
momentous occasion, which he never forgot. It was 
the chief recollection that strengthened him for the 
mighty grasp of his faith, when alone he kneeled by 
the bed-side of Dorcas, and put forth his poor hand 
for the lifting of a dead woman into life. He learned 
that this sympathetic Son of Mary — Son of God — 
held the mastery forever over relentless Death. In 
his name mortality put on immortality. 

We must remember, however, that this was his 
earliest lesson in such a behalf. Other two were to 
come. And the progression in these wonders is 
plainly perceptible. The first case of resurrection 
was this of one scarcely out of life, still warm with 
the pulses which had only just ceased beating. Then 
came the miracle at Nain; and the widow's son was 
out upon his bier, and they were actually bearing 
him away to burial. Then came the raising of Laz- 
arus, four days in the sepulchre already. So the 
wonders grew. An only daughter — an only son — 
an only brother — given back again! 

Think of the majesty of that moment in this world's 
history, when Jesus Christ declared that solemn, ir- 
revocable death was only a Christian's sleep ! Out- 
side of that small dwelling in Capernaum, a great race 
of men rushed and toiled, as they harassed conti- 
nents and seas ; mighty events marshaled themselves 



JAIRUS' DAUGHTER RAISED. 1 89 

into annals and pageants. What was inside ? In one 
inconspicuous chamber of a forgotten house, man's 
Redeemer, unobserved, mastered man's final enemy: 
Immanuel subdued death, and forever made captivity 
captive ! 

So now we can see easily why a Christian's song, 
like that a thousand years ago credited to the swan, 
is the sweetest in dying : it is because believers only 
say " Good night " when they die, and wait for the 
sure dawn in which to say " Good morning!" 

" Life ! we 've been long together, 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 
'T is hard to part when friends are dear, 
Perhaps 't will cost a sigli or tear ; 
Then steal away — give little warning — 

Choose thine own time — 
Say not * Good night,' but in some happier clime 

Bid me ' Good morning !' " 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD. 

We must remember that whenever in the Scripture 
record the apostles are mentioned, during the period 
of their discipleship under the personal teaching of 
Jesus, Simon Peter is of course included ; and that 
whenever the gospel of Mark, which he is supposed 
to have supervised, grows more bright and detailed 
than the rest, we may suppose Simon Peter's educa- 
tion is proceeding apace. He is gaining information 
which he afterward communicates. 

The part of Peter's history upon which we enter 
now definitely connects itself with the first mission- 
ary tour which the followers of our Lord made 
through the villages and towns of Galilee. He is 
now a preacher of the gospel ; he is a veritable fisher 
of human souls ; he is a worker of miracles. 

The faithful disciples of our Lord were just now on 
their way home to make report of what they had ac- 
complished in Galilee. They had been traveling 
around among the people, casting out devils, healing 
the sick, and proclaiming everywhere that men must 
repent of their sins. Full of exhilaration and joy at 
their success, they were suddenly met by tidings of 
the greatest moment, and of the deepest grief. 

From the lonely castle of Machaerus came the 
news that John the Baptist had at last sealed his work 
by his martyrdom. The chosen twelve hastened back 



SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD. 191 

in time to receive his mutilated remains, and lay 
them in the sepulchre. The great and shining light 
of the new dispensation had in one savage moment 
of lust been put out by the king, in order to gratify 
the spite of a wicked woman, and answer the whim 
of a dancing girl. These disciples felt the unutter- 
able gloom deepening around them. It is plain that 
they were heavily depressed in spirits. The record 
is exceedingly affecting in its artless simplicity, 
especially in one verse which Matthew adds to the 
narrative in Mark : " And his disciples came, and 
took up the body, and buried it, and went and told 
Jesus." 

As soon as the Saviour learned what his disciples' 
errand was, he made provision for a better season of 
quiet. No doubt the confusion which the multitudes 
made added to their excitement. They needed re- 
pose ; they needed instruction ; they needed sym- 
pathy. For they had discovered already the truth of 
that prediction, announced before they began their 
round of unappreciated service, that every true 
Christian was going forth as a sheep among wolves, 
and in the end would find himself wounded and torn 
to pieces. One faithful friend they knew they pos- 
sessed: they could go and tell Jesus. 

" And he said unto them, ' Come ye yourselves 
apart into a desert place, and rest awhile ' : for there 
were many coming and going, and they had no leis- 
ure so much as to eat. And they departed into a 
desert place by ship privately." 

Unrestricted intercourse with him was utterly im- 



192 SIMON peter: 

possible anywhere in that region. An irresponsible 
and oppressive crowd tumultuously thronged the 
streets and the houses. The disciples gained no time 
even for the commonest and most indispensable du- 
ties of existence. They could neither eat nor sleep, 
simply because the curious people came and went so 
promiscuously around them. Possibly it will be as 
well to raise and answer the question here as at any 
other time — Where did all these multitudes come 
from ? 

Many of them were the inhabitants of Capernaum, 
of course ; a seaside city has always enough to make 
a rabble out of. But these masses were augmented 
largely by mere curiosity-seekers from those villages 
which had communication with this market. Nor 
must we imagine that the audiences thronging Jesus 
were all mere idlers that had no errand ; many of 
them were believers. We know there was even then 
a respectable company of permanent adherents of the 
Master, who actually followed him from place to 
place, ministering in many ways to his wants, and 
increasing his fame by the steadfastness of their faith. 
Out of these the company of seventy new disciples 
already had been commissioned. And further, the 
great ebb and flow of the local people was increased 
at these times by excited troops of pilgrims, begin- 
ning to press along on the country thoroughfares, 
going up to Jerusalem for the annual Passover. They 
had heard concerning Jesus' miracles, and would de- 
sire to see all they could of one who boldly claimed 
to be the promised Messiah of the nation. 



SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD. 1 93 

Simon Peter told Mark, so that he has put it on 
record, that early in our Lord's Galilean ministry 
precaution had been taken to have a " small ship " 
wait upon him, in case of a sudden emergency aris- 
ing like this. There was that in the present condi- 
tion of the twelve disciples, which rendered it an im- 
perative necessity for entire rest to be allowed them. 
They would have to retire where the thoughtful 
Teacher could converse with them alone at his will. 

Our picture is now full of interest. They em- 
barked upon the calm surface of Lake Gennesaret, 
over which they had sailed so many times together. 
They were soon away from the yellow beach, and off 
on the water. These men knew every secluded spot 
in the vicinity all around the shore. They moved 
tranquilly along, apparently not noticing that they 
were eagerly watched from the town. Their steers- 
man — most likely Simon Peter — struck his course 
almost directly across, towards a familiar landing on 
the eastern border up north, near the village of Beth - 
saida — that other Bethsaida, afterwards named 
Julias. " A desert place," this is called in the story. 
But we are not to understand that it was a bare, deso- 
late, verdureless spot. It was an uninhabited and 
retired retreat: but in itself it seems to have been 
beautiful, and clothed with exuberant grass and all 
the luxuriance of that climate in spring. It was, 
doubtless, a tract of either plain or meadow, some- 
what extensive, sloping pleasantly up along the de- 
clivities of the mountains of Golan, the fringes of 
whose covering forest came down nearly to the 



194 simon peter: 

beach. It was easily reached with a few hours' 
rowing. 

Mooring their little vessel securely on the sands, 
the company wended their way up out of the hot 
sunshine into the welcome enclosure offered by the 
rich grove of walnuts and oaks, stretching away up 
the hillside before them. And now if it were pos- 
sible for us to know what was the conversation which 
they had together, when once they had arrived 
within the wooded seclusion, we could easily answer 
each question that arises concerning their purpose in 
going there. But the details have not been put on 
record. That shadowed nook will always rivet our 
attention, as one of the most interesting retreats 
around the Sea of Tiberias. For it once sheltered 
our human Redeemer and his friends when they 
needed repose. 

The most evident purpose of this temporary with- 
drawal of the disciples, next to the rendering of their 
report to Jesus, was the immediate physical and men- 
tal relief of an hour of communion alone. These 
faithful men had been on a long and fatiguing errand 
of zeal. They needed food, and they must have 
quiet, or they would break. 

Out of this eminent example comes the most 
prosaic of all religious counsels. Men and women 
who are in the hurry of Christian work demand 
periods of repose and recuperation. No person is 
ever under obligation to wear himself out in efforts 
for the upbuilding of God's kingdom or the conver- 
sion of souls, any more than in anything else. In- 



SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD. 1 95 

deed, there is a spiritual economy in labor that is of 
the highest wisdom in exercise. We can do more 
for Christ simply by doing what we do in accord- 
ance with laws of resource and exhaustion. These 
disciples were only human ; and the fact is, their 
nerves were all unstrung with too much exertion ; 
they were excited and over-taxed, perhaps alarmed 
and demoralized, under the news of a real in- 
stance of martyrdom. They wanted just what 
that shaded forest, with Jesus Christ in com- 
panionship, could furnish them in its sequestered re- 
cesses. How welcome, even for an hour, would be 
the songs of the spring birds upon their ears, now so 
wearied and ringing with the clamors of fluctuating 
multitudes ! How refreshing on their foreheads would 
be the stress of the cool winds, stealing up from the 
water through the leaves which bent to let them pass ! 
An idle moment for spiritual renewal under circum- 
stances of bodily repose — just that was their neces- 
sity; and Jesus was wise enough to see that they had 
it without delay. Such seasons of tranquil medita- 
tion and personal communion with the Saviour are 
positively needful for the recreation of Christian 
vigor. It was the Bride's sad lament in the Song of 
Songs: " They made me the keeper of the vineyards : 
mine own vineyard have I not kept." 

Still there was another purpose beyond this : our 
Lord invited his disciples away into that wood beside 
the sea, that he might impress upon their minds 
right views of the new Christian life. 

No one can fail to observe that from this time for- 



196 SIMON peter: 

ward, everything in the teaching and action of Jesus 
himself grows thoughtful even to a sort of mournful 
solemnity. His mind was borne upon much by the 
awful murder of John the Baptist. His disciples 
really had no reason to be surprised by such results 
of faithful dealing. They had been told that the 
world hated them. They had considered that an- 
nouncement well, or at least they thought they had. 
Yet when the blow fell, it gave them a shuddering 
shock. Their imaginations were arrested by the 
silence and dungeon-gloom of death in the darkness. 
There was something so horrible in this cutting off 
one's head with a blunt blow of an axe or sword. 
Decapitation was never practised as a method of ex- 
ecution. A mere wish of this wanton girl had fash- 
ioned a new and brutal sort of mutilation. An 
irresponsible caprice, gloating oyer an obscene re- 
venge, had given a fresh turn of ingenuity to injustice. 
The order of doom had proceeded with such reckless 
abruptness; the motives which had actuated Herodias 
were so mean and infamous; indeed, all the circum- 
stances that attended the execution were so unex- 
pected and irrelevant, that they were frightened. 
They learned suddenly how true it was for them all 
that they stood in jeopardy every hour. A tenure 
most frail was that upon which they held their own. 
lives. Permitted freedom from arrest was all they 
could claim ; and now whose turn would come 
next? 

But then we discover that, as soon as the little 
band had arrived, and were seated with him under 



SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD. 1 97 

the trees, Jesus began to instruct them as to the un- 
certainty of all life which is truly Christian. He 
foresaw his own painful end, and he understood that 
each one of those men before him had sorrowful 
times coming on. No word of his can be construed 
to hint that they were to avoid trouble, even of the 
most serious kind ; he only counseled them how they 
should deal with the troubles they had. He desired 
that their trials should find them prepared, brave, 
gentle, patient. It must have been encouraging to 
those men who loved him with all their hearts. He 
surely pointed them forward to another life than 
this. He made them see that the violent world 
would malign and oppose them; they must overcome 
the world ; things would be better by and by. 
" Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be 
joyous, but grievous : nevertheless, afterward it 
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto 
them which are exercised thereby." 

It is not easy to say just what our Lord did ; they 
were interrupted by a crowd before long. But we 
feel perfectly satisfied that the compassionate Saviour 
suffered their natural emotion to find vent without 
any rebuke. He gave them proper indulgence in 
mourning over the loss of one so dear as John the 
Baptist. And, no doubt, they told over and over 
the reminiscences of his career. Where was there 
ever before a forerunner so brave, a preacher so 
faithful, a hero so noble ? He was Jesus* affectionate 
kinsman; he had most likely baptized Andrew, Peter, 
and John. Christ had loved and trusted him ; in- 



i go simon peter: 

deed, he once said publicly that John was the great- 
est man ever born of woman. And now we may be 
certain that when the disciples went and told him, he 
would point out to them how fine a thing it was just 
to be genuine and true and steady to the end. And 
if Simon Peter got up on his feet to say he was not 
going to break for all this, it would have been just 
like him. And if the rest thought so, and said noth- 
ing, it would have been just like them, too. 

Perhaps they bowed their heads and wept ; if they 
did, it was not un-Christian nor unmanly. "Jesus 
wept" once; possibly more than once. There are 
times when God asks nothing of his children except 
silence, patience, and tears. He lets them go aside, 
away from interruption, in order to weep till nature 
is relieved of her heaviest burden; then he gives " a 
season of clear shining that cometh after rain." 

At last the quiet of their seclusion was interrupted. 
While the company lingered in the sweet solemnity 
of their communion, an increasing murmur of strange 
voices gathering near began to be distinguished. 
The unmistakable signs of an audience were in 
the air, floating up from the plain below. With 
matchless acquiescence, Jesus arose from his rest and 
gave signal for work once more. It is true they were 
all wearied; this hour was luxury; but the call was 
made, and Peter learned that ease must always yield 
to duty. 

Tidings were brought to them, sitting in the 
shadows of the walnut-forest, that ten thousand men, 
women, and children (so, generally, commentators 



SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD. 1 99 

reckon their number) were tranquilly awaiting the 
Saviour's reappearance, in order that, perhaps, they 
might listen again to the words of eternal life. We 
can have no doubt that every human feeling those 
disciples had was reluctant. Mourning over their 
bereavement, and fatigued with the journey through 
Galilee, they would have preferred to be left in 
peace. But there was no discharge in that war. As 
ever, the great, fallen, needy world rushed and 
roared tumultuously around them ; it demanded its 
Redeemer ; its only Hope must be followed up, 
even if he had retired into the mountains of Golan. 
When did it ever allow anybody to rest ? 

It is most instructive to observe that Jesus 
Christ does not, even in the least degree, share 
the impatience of those disciples. He arises se- 
renely and instantly, saying by his action what he 
afterward said in speech : " My Father worketh hith- 
erto, and I work." Oh, great, brave Life was that, 
addressing itself tirelessly to a thankless labor for 
souls that were going to reject him in the end ! He 
who stayed in the glare of the noontide at Sychar 
to speak with one poor, wicked woman, with a wish 
to save her soul, now advanced, unhesitant as ever, 
forth from his solitude to make effort for a thousand. 
Once out from under the trees, looking down along 
the verdured slope clear to the beach, the disciples 
all saw that vast multitude. But only the emotions 
of their Master are recorded : " And Jesus, when he 
came out, saw much people, and was moved with 
compassion toward them, because they were as sheep 
9* 



200 SIMON PETER: 

not having a shepherd : and he began to teach them 
many things." 

There the great Rabbi stood in full view ; they 
discovered him at one and the same instant. A 
wild confusion of human voices, perhaps, arose in 
the air. Just here this picture flashes itself upon 
our imagination, wonderfully fine and beautiful. 
Emerging from the shadows of the copse of green, 
the forms of their bright, flowing, garments must 
have been imaged against it in evident outline. 
Our eyes seem to see the scene. The Saviour stands 
a little advanced, but the faithful friends of his 
choice, the companions of his perils, are just behind 
him. Those unnumbered multitudes are surging 
and swaying in groups, down on the sands and 
along up the sides of the hill — a mighty, undisci- 
plined audience. They have all only one center; 
with eager eyes each is looking upwards anxiously, 
just to catch a glimpse of Immanuel, and to implore 
his help ! 

Who were all these men and women ? They were 
what are generally called the masses. The persist- 
ency, with which the common people continued to 
follow Jesus is a proof that his popularity thus far 
had not been lessened by the outbreak of Herodias 
in attacking him through John the Baptist. There 
they were — the world in miniature — directly before 
him; a harmless company, with no one to be their 
spokesman, no one to be their guide, no one to care 
for them, no one to be responsible for them. They 
appeared just like one of those vagrant flocks our 



SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD. 201 

Lord was accustomed to see on the pasture-grounds 
of grassy hills. As he marked their excited looks, 
their aimless hurry, unfolded, unprotected, and un- 
led, he compared the whole crowd instinctively to 
sheep without a shepherd. A shepherd is everything 
to sheep. It may suggest new thought to imagine 
now and then what the multitudes are "without," as 
well as what they are with ; what they lack, as well 
as what they have. All that any shepherd could be 
to a helpless flock — just that they miss. 

Suppose Simon Peter, standing there on the ridge 
of the hill, had asked, What is to be done now for 
this crowd? Much help would come to him, we may 
be sure, from a careful observation of what the Mas- 
ter did do. Two things would concern him; two 
things concern us now : how did our Lord feel, and 
what did he set about? What was in the Saviour's 
heart? And what was in his hand? Peter gave 
Mark the replies to these questions. 

" He was moved with compassion towards them;" 
this exhibits Jesus' feelings. What does it mean? 
What is compassion ? A little dry etymology, per- 
haps, may be permitted here. This word compassion 
comes from two Latin words,, con signifying together \ 
and passio signifying suffering. Just so, precisely, a 
word signifying in the Greek language together, and 
another signifying suffering, go in to make up our 
common word sympathy. Jesus seems to have known 
that what the throng before him needed most was 
that he should suffer together with them. Oh, that 
this were our experience always! The great com- 



202 SIMON PETER: 

mon humanity pulses in our veins. What these 
masses, as we call them, these "souls," as Christ on 
the hillside gazed over them, want beyond every 
other earthly want is that this warm heart of human- 
ity should beat with them while it beats for them. 

Very suggestive is one recorded remark of the 
critic Ruskin : "You know," says he, "that to be- 
stow alms is nothing unless you bestow thought also; 
and therefore it is written, not ' Blessed is he that 
fcedeth the poor,' but ' blessed is he that consid- 
ered " 

But what did our Lord do for that multitude ? 
Here Mark's record comes in again. " He began to 
teach them many things." That is to say, he gave 
up his ease ; he relinquished his ineffably welcome 
retirement that April morning ; he advanced imme- 
diately to offer them a greeting, as if he had been 
overjoyed at the chance of a new audience. There 
for hours stood that patient Master of us all, telling 
them of his Father's love, of the Messiah's coming, of 
the ransom paid for sinners, of the great life by faith, 
of the righteousness like a wedding garment, and the 
open gate of heaven. The simple story of the cross 
was, in all likelihood, just what he continued to repeat 
then as ever. Away over the world ranged his im- 
agination to find what the kingdom of heaven was 
like, and home to each heart came the tender, wistful 
words of Him whom the common people always 
heard gladly, because he suffered together with all. 

Simon Peter learned his lesson ; his epistles are 
full of evidences that he never forgot this forenoon 



SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD. 203 

in the mountain of Golan. Here is the , unchanging 
errand of one who would lift the masses out of their 
degradation and sorrow. Turn directly and sympa- 
thetically toward the souls which are standing next 
to us. Treat them humanly, " moved with compas- 
sion." Then begin to "teach them many things." 
In the whole Bible our Lord is declared to have 
marveled only twice — once at the centurion, once at 
the Nazarenes; once at great faith, and once, more 
than ever, at the great lack of it. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE WALK ON THE WATER. 

" And Peter went down from the boat, and walked 
upon the waters, to come to Jesus. But when he 
saw the wind he was afraid ; and beginning to sink, 
he cried out, saying, ' Lord, save me.' " 

Among the ancient Egyptians the symbol of im- 
possibility was the simple figure of two feet planted 
upon a fragment of ocean. Above all other exploits, 
walking on water seems to have been deemed the 
one thing which no mortal could do. With instinctive 
sense of the nature of the act, our own convictions 
fall into the same certainty. It is only God's path 
which is " in the great waters, and his footsteps are 
not known." What startles us, therefore, in this fa- 
miliar narrative is the fact that a human being is out 
upon the waves, and the fluid floor is actually be- 
coming firm beneath his foothold. A fisherman of 
Galilee suddenly forsakes his boat, steps unfalteringly 
over the side of it when the crests appear running 
highest along the ridge of the billows, and moves on 
across the lake in the very face of a tempest and in 
the violence of a storm ! 

The way in which this came about is worth notic- 
ing. After a day of miracle, employed in feeding 
some five thousand people, our Saviour had urged 
his reluctant disciples away into their vessel, and had 
directed them to proceed before him to the western 
side of the Sea of Tiberias ; then he quietly turned 



THE WALK ON THE WATER. 205 

himself to dismiss the excited multitudes, and went 
up into the mountain to pray. 

Meantime the night wore on into tempestuous 
peril, until those fishermen, although thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the lake in all its most fitful moods, 
grew fairly frightened with its heaving and uproar. 
Just then appeared the awful and majestic figure of 
Immanuel walking toward them on the surface of the 
water, treading the obedient billows under his feet. 
They first thought it was a spectre they saw, and 
they fell into superstitious alarm ; but a single word 
of friendly announcement gave them reassurance: 
" It is I ; be not afraid." Wonderful spectacle was 
that which they now beheld. Jehovah was, indeed^ 
choosing his way in the sea ; he was making dark- 
ness his secret place, and his pavilion round about 
him dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. 

In this sublime instant of supreme disclosure, our 
impulsive friend Simon Peter rises in the boat to put 
in a characteristic appearance. Remember he now 
makes his home in the city of Capernaum. He has mar- 
ried a respectable maiden there. Serious illness has 
occurred just lately in his family. His mother-in-law 
has been very sick with a fever. Jesus healed her by 
miracle. Peter knew all about the sudden cure. 
Sometime previous to this, too, he had caught a 
most unprecedented haul of fishes. Indeed, he had 
witnessed any number of wonders already since he 
began to know Christ. And without doubt he must 
have learned to grow somewhat expectant concern- 
ing his divine Lord ; things might at any moment 



206 SIMON peter: 

assume a marvelous cast. And now, when he recog- 
nizes the infinite kingliness of this supreme presenta- 
tion of omnipotence, when he perceives the form of 
light shining in the dark, and the face of grandeur 
standing serene in the tempest, he suddenly seems 
seized with the impulsive desire to have for himself 
some conspicuous share in the show. 

It is not worth while to renew this scene in our 
remembrance as if it were only a matchless picture 
in a supernatural drama. Every spectacle in Christ's 
life is a sermon. This fragment of history preaches 
an evangelical discourse on the subject of experi- 
mental faith at school. And we shall most likely do 
better to continue our study of it with a slender anal- 
ysis, constructed out of the discourse rather than out 
of the history. We can certainly gather all the inci- 
dents around the lessons for spiritual instruction. 

For example, we learn this earliest : presumption 
is the usual peril of an untested faith. 

Simon Peter was always trying to do what no one 
else thought of. And, this time, he assuredly ran 
before he was sent. The moment Jesus' words fell 
on his ear, " It is I ; be not afraid," Peter answered 
him and said : " Lord, if it be thou, bid me come 
unto thee on the water." Here we may note the in- 
timate mingling of an earnest confidence with a 
wretched distrust in the form of request. 

He says, " Bid me come," as if he admitted that 
Christ held a peculiar supremacy of command. This 
disciple saw he could never come, and ought not to 
seek to come, unbidden. But he illogically adds, 



THE WALK ON THE WATER. 20f 

" If it be thou," when Jesus had just said, " It is I." 
Simon Peter believed, but not much. He doubted 
also, but not thoroughly. That is to say, his expe- 
rience appears mixed, and certainly is faulty. The in- 
struction we shall receive from it depends upon our 
being able, with some degree of intelligence, to settle 
the precise reason why an unasked man like this dis- 
ciple wished, in the midst of storm, darkness, and 
peril, to leap down out of his boat upon the water, 
simply because he saw Christ there. 

Possibly, he meant to pay an honest tribute to 
Jesus' omnipotence, and to do him an unusual honor. 
Perhaps he was curious just to see how such a won- 
derful feat would seem. But an easier conjecture is 
found in that plain personal vanity, for which in this 
early period of his career the son of Jonas was re- 
markable. We may consent charitably to consider 
that he was unconscious of his conceit. But the art- 
lessness of his self-esteem in thus thrusting his weak 
personality into notice is almost childish. What 
could he possibly want to go off upon the lake for ? 
He appears to have been simply arrested with a silly 
gush of wishing to start out before all the rest, stand 
boldly on the billows, and walk tragically in towards 
his audience upon the perilously tossing stage. 

Let us pause long enough to lay it to heart that 
when we discover men and women attempting un- 
heard-of and indescribable things, querulous and dis- 
satisfied with the sober round of grand, every-day 
duty, just because it is unromantic and tiresome, we 
may begin openly to attribute their action to the in- 



208 SIMON peter: 

experience of their lives or the mere overweening con- 
fidence of their characters. We may watch with much 
solicitude for "their downfall. Peter was conspicuous 
in this exploit for his leaping overboard at his own 
suggestion ; some of the rest remained waiting for 
their Lord to speak. His summons had not arrived 
for the exposure ; so his faith was presumptuous. 

One wishes with all his heart that this indiscreet 
disciple had kept such useless courage as he now 
wasted for the necessitous hour in Caiaphas* palace, 
where for lack of it he fell into the denial. All this 
impetuous offer of dangerous experiment here evi- 
denced only rashness and merited only rebuke. It is 
as much a true Christian's duty to spare himself from 
all uncalled-for danger as it is his duty to surrender 
himself to commanded risk in the hour when God 
summons him. There is a difference between faith 
and forwardness. Matthew Henry, with his accus- 
tomed bright simplicity of expression, says : " There 
is an over-doing as well as an under-doing, and some- 
times such an over-doing as amounts to an un- 
doing." 

But the story moves on, and we may learn, in the 
second place, that experience is the cure of a pre- 
sumptuous faith. 

The mood of mind Simon Peter was in needed a 
corrective and a censure. Jesus chose a most unique 
way of administering them both. He let the man 
have his own wish. "And he said, Come." 

It needs a careful discrimination just here to show 
precisely what our Lord pledged in this acquiescence, 



THE WALK OX THE WATER. 20Q 

and what he did not. The reply he rendered was not 
by any means parallel nor commensurate with the 
proposal of Simon. For Simon had asked, " Bid 
me." But Jesus did not bid him. That word 
" Come" signifies permission, not command. Peter 
said : " Bid me come unto thee." Christ told him 
nothing about his being able to keep his foothold so 
far as to reach his side. Further, Peter said : "Bid 
me come unto thee on the water." Jesus intimated 
no promise that the water should continually hold 
this presumptuous man up from sinking. Simple 
acquiescence in the new experiment was all Simon 
Peter got that day ; on his own responsibility he took 
the rest. No fresh faith was granted him. He was 
merely suffered to have his own way. Our Lord 
was quite aware that conceited men cannot be taught 
theoretically. It is necessary that they should have 
experience for their discipline. 

Choose a man spiritually inflated and proudly self- 
confident, sharply criticising the faults or falls of 
others. Tell him to be charitable; for their exposures 
of temptation are heavier than any human nature can 
bear. Go so far as to hint to him that he could do 
no better himself. And it is to be feared that he will 
teach you, by the quiet smile of derision alert upon 
his face, how little he regards a warning so personal. 
Tell him, if you will, in dismay at such inveterate 
presumption, that a thousand Christians have tried in 
vain to stand before a given stress — an appetite, an 
amusement, an impulse, or a vice — and you only 
secure from him the impetuous proposal: "Very 



2IO SIMON peter: 

well; but let me try it." Really the best thing to do 
with him is just to let him try it, when it can be at- 
tempted without a perilous injury to other interests. 
For full experience is the quickest corrective and the 
surest cure for any venturesome faith that has grown 
too presuming and too self-reliant. 

Easily, then, we learn another lesson from the 
story. Success is the fine reward of an experienced 
faith. 

At this moment we may well consent to drop, or 
at least delay, our censure of Simon Peter. For, at 
the worst, he proves that the root of the matter is in 
his heart. Grander thing no man ever did in this 
old world's history than he did when unhesitatingly 
he followed his bold word with his brave deed: 
" And when Peter was come down out of the ship he 
walked on the water to go to Jesus." He had enough 
of reliance on his Master to obtain and fashion a foot- 
hold for a part of the traverse. He did walk upon 
the water. And as long as his faith held out he 
accomplished what no human foresight would have 
pronounced a possible thing for a mortal to do. 

Our Lord once said : " He that believeth in me, 
the works that I do shall he do also." Walking on 
the water was what Jesus was doing then ; and Simon 
Peter, for one swift, exalted moment, was doing ex- 
actly that also. Our inference is instantaneous and 
irresistible ; faith is force ; an unbroken faith is om- 
nipotent. For faith is what " laughs at impossibility, 
and says, It shall be done." 

Simon did not go, but he went down to go ; and 



THE WALK ON THE WATER. 211 

he did go an admirable part of the way to Jesus. It 
was his trust in Jesus for even that exploit which 
upheld him. The motto of each true believer might 
well be that of the apostle: "I can do all things 
through Christ which strengtheneth me." Success 
rewards real reliance. 

But what was all this for ? It is not needful to 
wonder that such a magnificent miracle was wrought 
for a mere trivial end. It is not wise to call this end 
trivial. For our Saviour was writing gospel history 
for all time to come. Many are the weary workers 
of this world to whom the success of Peter, even so 
far as it reached, has brought courage and confirma- 
tion. Many a timid faith has read this tale. And 
then brave souls without number have gone forth to 
dare greater perils still, because the Master has said, 
" Come." v 

Think of it ; one of the noblest pictures of earth's 
history is that of this Galilean fisherman, walking 
even no more than five or fifteen steps on the water. 
Curious beyond measure it seems to imagine his feel- 
ings. Once out upon the waves, away from the 
boat, the vision must have been wild and terrific. It 
was near midnight. The storm of wind had left the 
sea in ridges. Clouds were overhead and blasts 
roared beneath, tempests whirling the spray into his 
face ; perhaps white gleams of the passover moon- 
light rushing through the rifts of running mist; the 
deep moans of the worried lake, now partly subdued 
to such unwilling service as lifting the touch of human 
feet. Still, forward he went " to go " to the Redeem- 



212 SIMON PETER: 

er's side; nothing could ever daunt, nothing could 
ever sink the faith which thus continued steadily 
" looking off unto Jesus." 

Once more : we may learn from this scripture that 
failure is the discipline of even a successful faith. 

It is no trifling thing to war against nature. There 
is, however, lodged among the ruins of this constitu- 
tion of ours, now and then a mute reminder of the 
human race's royalty upon this planet where it 
dwells. Will can fight the law of debasement a little 
moment, once in a while, and bright intelligence 
rises into singular and inexplicable regnancy over 
even the heaviest of matter. A man is lighter by 
weight in the daytime than in the night. With ordi- 
nary wit in exercise, he moves on actually the kingly 
creature amid the realms of natural life. One can 
travel farther without weariness of fatigue if only in 
joyous company. High exhilaration will brace up 
worn-out sinews. Much resoluteness, a fine sense of 
elation, the spring and rebound of great bravery, a 
good measure of personal upleaping of force, the 
excitement of being in a miracle, combined with 
some genuine faith in Christ, kept Simon Peter afloat 
on his feet at any rate for one splendid moment in 
the sea ! 

Then faith yielded, and all the rest went for noth- 
ing. Alas, for the sense of impotency this frightened 
man must have had, when he earliest felt himself 
wavering down into and among the waves ! The ap- 
palling turbulence of the tempest, the tossing of the 
billows, the incessant whisk of water from the broken 



THE WALK ON THE WATER. 213 

torrents around him, seem to have unfixed the poise 
of his trust, and distracted the look of his confidence 
at once. It was instantaneous, like the abrupt sun- 
dering of a wire-connection that takes the attracting 
power out of a magnet ; the needle of his faith be- 
came a piece of inert iron. 

Perhaps, when he had got on so far, his fear abated, 
and so he had time to think how fine a thing he had 
done. That would foster vanity enough to cut him 
off. Possibly some flash of imagination turned him 
back on himself, and it may have occurred to him 
just then to picture how he looked from the boat, or 
to wonder if those others were still watching him, or 
to conjecture whether they were not envying his 
prowess in such a new achievement as this. At all 
events, the record reads : " But when he saw the 
wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to 
sink," After a single grand instant of success, 
granted as a. reward for his measure of steady faith, 
this man found himself left to endure humiliating 
failure, as the retribution for his subsequent measure 
of unbelief. 

It is never any new burst of a tempest, nor any 
fresh revelations of dark clouds, which causes so 
many of us venturesome people to sink our successes 
in ignominious defeat. It is simply an unwarrantable 
and unnecessary breaking up of our trust in the Lord. 
While Simon Peter unwaveringly depended on Jesus, 
he went straight along toward him. The moment he 
let his thought turn he was gone. While he said, 
" I will walk by Christ," there was no denying it, he 



214 SIMON peter: 

did walk. But when he began to whisper to himself, 
" I am walking on the water ; what do the world think 
of me?" there was no denying it, he went under. We 
cannot possibly be mistaken in such a conclusion. 
For, when our Lord seizes him by the hand to save 
him, there is full explanation in the rebuke he ad- 
ministers ; Jesus says to him, " O thou of little 
faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?" 

Hence, finally, we may learn also from this story 
that quick prayer for help is the relief for a failing 
faith. 

" He cried, Lord, save me ! " The one admirable 
feature in Simon's behavior that eventful day was 
found in his seeking for succor at the right source. 
He still turned to Jesus for help. When he felt 
himself going under the water, we should say that, 
like any other fisherman, he would instantly have 
taken to swimming, or called for relief from the 
comrades in the boat. But it is likely we are all 
ready to admit we do not know what would have 
become of him if he had turned his back on Christ 
at such a juncture, or attempted to shirk for him- 
self in the midst of the peril. 

There is often as much wit and wisdom employed 
in the retrieval of any vast misfortune as is needed for 
ordinary success in adventure. A wild life Peter had 
been leading on that lake ; he was an experienced 
swimmer, for we read in another chapter that he 
plunged swiftly into the sea once, and went faster 
to shore than the boat did. It is wonderfully wel- 
come to find him gathering up his energies here, not 



THE WALK ON THE WATER. 21 5 

of skill but of faith, for his extrication. He will be 
rescued by Jesus, or not at all. And before we pro- 
nounce harshly upon his undoubted failure, it does 
seem just fair to remember how nobly he accepted 
his discipline, and educated his faith back to a new 
hold. 

Of course, the immediate application of all this is 
to every man's own wild fluctuations of feeling in 
periods of perplexity or doubt. Perhaps our minds 
are benumbed with a chill of subtle arguments, 
or our hearts grow tremulous under trial. We 
push on, but we observe our souls are sinking 
in humiliating failure. And then we fall to thinking 
of the failure, and the disastrous results coming after 
failure. Hence, things grow rapidly worse; for the 
more a failing faith thinks of its failing — indeed, the 
more it thinks of anything except Jesus Christ the 
Lord, and how it shall get closer and stay nearer to 
him — the more certain it is that the timid soul will be 
lost at the last. For nothing can be truer than this ; : 

" If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, 
that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; 
and it shall be given to him. But let him ask in faith, 
nothing wavering : for he that wavereth is like a 
wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 
For let not that man think he shall receive anything 
of the Lord." 

Faith, to be trustworthy and available, must never 

lose heart. That omnipotence, which can confirm 

one step of ours upon a watery floor, can certainly 

compact the waves like rock beneath our tread 
10 



216 SIMON peter: 

through the whole traverse of duty, if only trust is 
held steady. 

Simon Peter failed in order to show the essential 
and necessary Weakness of one who has lost his 
union with his Saviour, and the certain sinking of 
one who has looked at the troubles which beset him, 
when he should have kept looking only unto Christ. 

Simon Peter failed that he might teach us all along 
the ages how very quick is the reversal of failure 
into success again, when our wandering eyes return 
from their wavering to their allegiance, from their 
outlook of apprehension to their serenity of trust. Is 
it possible that any man on earth could have a better 
tale told of him than this : " Beginning to sink, he 
cried, Lord, save me ! " 

How pleasantly the record closes as the incident 
reaches its end : " Immediately Jesus stretched forth 
his hand and caught him." And probably he did not 
let go of him again after that. We can easily be 
persuaded that this disciple was quite satisfied with 
such a termination of his adventure. For the Lord 
offered him the privilege of walking on the sea the 
second time, and now he walked perfectly safely. 
That seems to be the only way he could get back to 
the boat — he trod the billows upright at last, 
alongside of Jesus; and the most wonderful 
picture in the world would be that which would 
fittingly portray the scene, the Master and 
the man, hand-in-hand, stepping on together over 
the living crests of a willing Gennesaret, which in *he 
hour of subjection knew its Lord ! 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE GREAT CONFESSION. 

The next day after the walk on the water, Simon 
Peter, in company with the rest, and attended by a 
large throng of the impetuous residents of Caper- 
naum, listened to the discourse which was destined 
to divide the people more than anything Christ had 
ever preached before. Even some of those who had 
seemed ready to become his firm adherents forsook 
him from that time. For the doctrine he disclosed 
was not only unusually mysterious in its form of 
expression, but it was also repugnant in its suggestion 
to every unrenewed heart. He had risen in his 
teachings step by step, until he now told every man 
that his case was inevitably hopeless unless he was 
willing to accept an atonement wrought out for him 
by another. He must renounce himself, and be content 
to be saved by a transfer of personality so thorough 
that it amounted to losing his identity in a Saviour 
provided. Precisely what he said was this : " I am 
the living bread which came down from heaven : if 
any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever : and 
the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will 
give for the life of the world. Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, 
hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last 
day." Of course, ordinary people were stumbled, 
and refused to follow a leader whom they considered 



2l8 SIMON peter: 

mystic and absurd ; and so there came coolness and 
an evident wane of his popularity, which began to 
affect his nearest adherents. The tone of the narra- 
tive seems to sadden a little. "Then said Jesus unto 
the twelve/Will ye also go away?" It was at this 
time that the early reply was made which has in all 
the ages shown that in the disciple, understood to be 
the most impulsive, there was a residue of great and 
generous force : " Then Simon Peter answered him, 
Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of 
eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou 
art that Christ, the Son of the living God." 

We attach much importance to this first confession 
of Jesus as the divine Redeemer ; but the necessities 
of this series of biographical incidents require that 
we rapidly place beside it another very much re- 
sembling it, and yet in some points altogether 
transcending it. And we may as well say now that 
it is possible that the difference between these two 
creeds of confession turns upon the fact that, by this 
time, Peter had got so far on in the divine life that 
the Holy Ghost was making personal revelations to 
his soul, was settling his convictions, was offering 
positively new information, and was realizing to him 
what he already intelligently knew. And moreover, 
the one bold, strong confession opened the way to 
another bolder and stronger still. In the last in- 
stance, we shall meet a commendation so extraordinary 
that it sounds like one of the Beatitudes from the 
Sermon on the Mount. It may have been the prompt- 
ness, the heartiness, the deepened reach of Peter's 



THE GREAT CONFESSION. 219 

belief, which Jesus now approved. For on the 
second occasion Peter spoke as taught by God him- 
self; Christ plainly told him that. 

Nothing is more certain than that there is one 
period in the life of each true believer when the Spirit 
of God begins to let in an unusual flood of new 
knowledge upon his present experiences ; knowledge 
of truth which in its relations and majesty it is his 
personal and official prerogative to bestow. This is 
the teaching of the inspired apostle spoken long 
afterwards : " For God, who commanded the light to 
shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to 
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God 
in the face of Jesus Christ." 

The story of the second confession takes us quite 
away from our familiar neighborhoods, and summons 
us 'outside of Galilee. Clear up on the northern 
boundary of that province once stood a little town, 
to which the ancients gave the name of Banias, in- 
significant in everything except in the beauty of its 
situation. It lay very close to some copious springs, 
out of the waters of which, flowing cool and crystal 
down the slopes of Lebanon, the river Jordan takes 
its rise. Philip, the tetrarch, adorned and enlarged 
the town at great cost ; and he called it Caesarea- 
Philippi, in honor of Tiberius, then the Caesar at 
Rome, adding, however, his own cognomen in order 
to distinguish it from another Caesarea, lying down 
by the Great Sea, a city of much celebrity in the 
earlier history, and for a conspicuous period of years 
the metropolis of Palestine. 



220 SIMON PETER: 

To this spot once came our divine Lord with his 
disciples. Possibly, he was withdrawing himself for 
rest, seeking retirement from the trying throngs that 
pressed him. At this place there occurred an un- 
usually important conversation, so far as ecclesiastical 
history is concerned; for it has been the polemic 
battle-ground of the ages. Here was spoken that 
second wonderful confession of Simon Peter which 
has rendered the locality famous. Grand as that 
old cliff is, it will crumble into its native dust and be 
forgotten long before the speech of one mere Galilean 
fisherman, made at its base, will have ceased 
to be discussed. To Simon Peter was granted the 
answer to Job's ancient prayer : " Oh, that my 
words were now written ! oh, that they were printed 
in a book ! that they were graven with an iron pen 
and lead in the rock for ever ! " 

Further : it so happens that in the course of the 
narrative are found certain forms of expression used 
by our Saviour, which receive their explanation 
from certain unusual conformations of landscape and 
local surroundings that appear to have given fashion 
to the extraordinarily forcible figure he used. 

The ancient Greeks had a deity called Pan. They 
associated with his worship retired caverns or grottos, 
as most appropriate for his chosen place of abode, and 
as furnishing their own fittest resort for assembling. 
One of these sylvan shrines is known to have lain at 
the base of Mount Hermon. There, even at the 
present day, is disclosed a vast and magnificent cave, 
hollowed in a hill-side of stone. Oak groves are all 



THE GREAT CONFESSION. 221 

around it, of splendidly developed growth and age. 
There used to be an elegant city almost within reach ; 
this they called " Panium," after the name of Pan. 

Suggestive ruins are lying there now, shapeless 
and overgrown with briers. But the most notice- 
able thing in the vicinity is one mighty cliff of bare 
rock, stretching up above the cave a thousand 
feet of sheer precipice — a perpendicular of red lime- 
stone, like the wall of a Titan's castle. Inscriptions 
cut on the surface claim to perpetuate a hundred by- 
gone traditions. Legends without limit of number 
or exaggeration surround the spot. Eusebius grows 
briskly eloquent, and Josephus becomes insufferably 
tedious, with laborious effort to rehearse them. 

As the dynasties rose and fell, one town after an- 
other sprang up on the plain beneath ; first, Panium, 
then Banias, and then Csesarea-Philippi, where we 
meet our Lord with- his disciples on the occasion of 
Simon Peter's great confession of faith. 

Beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful in all north- 
ern Palestine, is this famous neighborhood. Under- 
neath the cavern is gathered a volume of water that 
finally, after cooling itself in the dark abodes of its 
birth, rushes out in a delightfully clear stream, fully 
a hundred feet broad, dashing down the rugged rocks 
in rapid and musical currents, drenching the hot air 
with freshness, and ravishing a traveler's eye with 
sensuous play of foam and leaping of cascades. The 
whole region is fragrantly strewn with flowers, lying 
among an exquisite mingling of sunshines and 
shadows cast by the ilexes and olives. It is often 



222 SIMON PETER : 

called " the Tivoli of Syrian landscape," one of those 
attractive scenes which an artist hastens to visit, when 
he would renew his portfolio with the loveliest 
sketches of unfamiliar beauty from the Orient. 
* " When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea- 
Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do 
men say that I, the Son of man, am ? And they said, 
Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some 
Elias ; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." 
Luke informs us that when this famous conversa- 
tion took place Jesus had just been alone praying; 
and Mark adds that it occurred " by the way." In 
all likelihood, this was one of those interesting road- 
side discourses with which Christ was accustomed to 
enrich his companionship, as he moved on with that 
familiar group of intimates which followed him. For 
order in our present study, the particulars of de- 
scription are easily arranged around two points; 
namely, the creed this disciple professed, and the 
credit he got by it. 

It is evident, from the history, that our Lord de- 
sired to awaken some sort of anxiety in the minds of 
his followers, and to excite their feelings of loyalty 
to truth, and to himself, so that they might be upon 
their guard against disaffection under any popular pres- 
sure, or any wild popular perversions of his charac- 
ter or mission. 

So, coming forth quietly from his usual devotions 
in the mountain, and joining his company, he abrupt- 
ly put to them the question, "Whom do men say 
that I, the Son of man, am ?" They made no hesi- 



THE GREAT CONFESSION. 223 

tation in their reply. Frankly they proceeded to 
rehearse the views which they had heard expressed 
in one way and another throughout their journeys. 
A portion of the reports among the crowds they 
could easily remember. 

They informed him that an uneasy few, with Herod 
at* the head of them, said he was a resuscitation of 
John the Baptist. Even at that early day, it is possi- 
ble that some held the doctrine of transmigration of 
souls. The notion was prevalent, borrowed from 
heathen philosophy, that those who as martyrs suf- 
fered for religious beliefs would be allowed to come 
to the upper world again ; at any rate, they would 
arise from the dead before the rest. Hence, the dis- 
ciples also told Jesus that there were others who be- 
lieved him to be one who was inhabited by the soul 
of Elijah. This Old Testament prophet had not 
died, but was translated into heaven ; and Malachi, 
the latest seer who had declared a message from 
God, had left on record an obscure intimation that 
he would actually return some time. Then, further, 
one of this company, possibly Matthew, for he alone 
records the rumor, mentioned that some thought 
Jesus was Jeremiah. 

Apparently the talk now became desultory, for 
the suggestion fell away into a mere grouping to- 
gether of all the weaker stories or more foolish tradi- 
tions they had caught as to our Lord's being " one 
of the prophets." One thing is observable in these 
reports ; however the opinions differed, and however 

extravagantly wide of the real truth they all were, 
10* 



224 SIMON PETER : 

they were honorable testimonials to the dignity of 
Jesus. For these gossipers in the streets had has- 
tened to give him the best names they had, and they 
unhesitatingly reckoned him among the epoch-lead- 
ers of the age. This would prove that the common 
people, who originally heard him gladly, had not yet 
altogether forsaken his cause, nor turned away from 
his teaching. Still, as we note that in all these con- 
jectures there was not found one clear acknowledg- 
ment of the messiahship of Jesus, we are forced to 
confess that the obstinate denials of the rulers and 
the violent denunciations of the interested placemen, 
as well as the sophistical arguments of the multiplied 
sects, had fatally demoralized the entire nation, and 
blinded their eyes to the awful risks they were run- 
ning in their rejection of the Lord of glory. 

Now we are not to suppose that Jesus was igno- 
rant as to this. He must have known what were the 
opinions abroad, and how much confidence in them 
his followers were wont to place. But he seems to 
wish a full expression of their thoughts in the midst 
of such confusion. His aim appears to have been to 
lead them to declare what, in their own judgment, 
had been the impression thus far of these two years' 
ministry. What did they conclude people at large 
had already come to think of his person and his 
office as God's messenger to men ? 

Jesus seems to have manifested no surprise, and 
exhibited no mortification, when he received so dis- 
couraging an account of what his disciples had 
heard. He had, however, a deeper concern than 



THE GREAT CONFESSION. 225 

this. It mattered little, comparatively, what the un- 
taught populace in Palestine thought of him ; it mat- 
tered more what those who followed him believed. 
So he turned his question directly upon the disci- 
ples: " But whom say ye that lam?" Among that 
band of adherents there was only one man of whom 
an immediate answer was to be expected : " And 
Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the living God." 

This, then, was the great confession of faith, which 
has come down to us through the ages. It was the 
creed that Peter boldly proffered ; we are now ready 
to consider the credit he got for it. It need not be 
any surprise to us that he received from our Lord 
himself instantly an honorable approval of his intelli- 
gence and courage. More welcome word than that, 
which it was his high privilege to hear from the Master 
then, was never spoken from heaven to earth : " And 
Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, 
Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed 
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." 

We have already learned that Bar means son; 
hence, " Simon Bar-jona " signifies son of Jonas, a 
name pronounced here as an exact antithesis and 
answer to the new name which this disciple applied 
just now to Jesus, "Son of God." When our Lord 
told Peter that " flesh and blood" had not revealed 
such a measure of truth to him, it becomes quite clear 
that he intended to say that intelligence like this did 
not come from any mere insight of human penetra- 
tion, nor from any degree of sagacity or worldly wis- 



226 SIMON peter: 

dom ; it must have been given directly by inspiration 
from God himself. It is evident, therefore, that there 
are great and valuable lessons for us to learn from 
this whole conversation. 

First, it will follow from a story like this, that it is 
of vast consequence what a man believes, and all 
the more if he be sincere in his creed. For it is 
likely one may seek in vain through the entire New 
Testament, and he will not discover anywhere another 
man than Simon Peter ever called " blessed " by our 
Lord Jesus Christ. This Galilean disciple received a 
wonderful honor merely because he accepted as re- 
vealed from on high the whole story of the cross, the 
work and the nature, the heavenly divinity and the 
earthly mastership, of the Messiah. 

We learn also that it is not enough to admit the 
bare record> and so simply consent to an historic 
Christ. It is not enough to whisper, " Jesus of Naz- 
areth must have been a divine person," and then drop 
hushed into a great, deep, devout, mystical wonder 
about him. Nor is it enough to cherish a sweet 
poetic sentiment as to the beauty of his characterand 
the pure loveliness of his weary life. For if this 
Galilean rabbi was anything, he was our God — Jeho- 
vah manifest in the flesh. If he came to this world 
for any purpose whatever, it was to make an atone- 
ment for sin. And unless he is received in the exer- 
cise of his offices as prophet, priest, and king, he is not 
received in any such way as brings the word, " Blessed 
art thou!" 

Again, to a human soul struggling for its immortal 



THE GREAT CONFESSION. 227 

life, Jesus the Saviour is everything at once y or he is 
nothing forever. In that old day of Simon Peter, 
it was hard to get at the exact truth. But what was 
perhaps a special and miraculous disclosure to him 
is at this later date a commonplace and everyday ex- 
perience to us. Each increment of our growing know- 
ledge in a sense comes new, as it did to him, by rev- 
elation of the Spirit of divine grace : " But the mani- 
festation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit 
withal." 

Furthermore: can we not see from a story like 
this how far the opinions of others are to be consid- 
ercd y when we are making up our own minds? 
What if men do differ ? What if the community 
is full of wandering surmises ? Truth is inde- 
pendent of mere popular applause or conjecture. 
There are some things about which conscientious 
and responsible human beings are not permitted 
to yield to mere epidemic prejudice. And, cer- 
tainly, what flesh and blood cannot reveal, flesh 
and blood are not competent in any possible form to 
pass upon for others. "W r hat if some did not 
believe?" They must be left to disbelieve, then, 
and take their own chances. " Shall that make the 
promises of God of none effect?" At least three 
things there are in the New Testament, it would ap- 
pear, which are not in the area of charitable toler- 
ance. We do not see where a man is to go who 
cannot agree with Simon Peter here in this notable 
assertion of his creed : Jehovah is supreme, and 
Christ is absolutely God, and Jesus is the Christ. This 



228 SIMON PETER: 

is what the brave man from Bethsaida said there at 
Cassarea, and his Lord pronounced him " blessed." 
What would the Almighty himself say about one who 
differed with him then ? 

Finally, we cannot fail to see that the one questio?i 
above all other questions of the present day is this : 
" Whom say ye that I am ? " Here Christ is, in the 
world, a factor in history, an influence among 
men. Some disposal is to be made of the words he 
has spoken and the force he exerts. "What think 
ye of Christ ? " It is an individual question ; each of 
us must deal with it. But he only will be " blessed" 
of the Lord who answers it as this disciple answered 
it, when, out of his exultant and obedient heart, he 
exclaimed : " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God ! " 



CHAPTER XXL 



THE GIFT OF THE KEYS. 



After the extraordinary encomium of benediction 
had been pronounced upon Simon Bar-jona for his 
confession of Jesus' divinity and messiahship, there 
followed a commission to his life-work, given him on 
the spot. So remarkable were the words which our 
Lord employed that it is best to quote the record in 
full: 

" And I say also unto thee, that thou art 
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And 
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt 
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 

The name Peter means a rock. There is in this 
sentence a play on words, needing in order to be seen 
plainly a language resembling the Aramaic, which Jesus 
sometimes used. The French catches it in the render- 
ing of the verse Pierre — -picrre : "Thou art a rock, and 
on this rock." It does not seem worth while to delay 
ourselves with that pretty theory concerning the dif- 
ference in grammatical gender between the name of the 
disciple and that of the object chosen for the rhetori- 
cal comparison in the latter part of the sentence, 
whatever it was. It is true of the terms that in the 
Greek one is masculine and the other is feminine ; 
but Jesus may have been talking Aramaic; and 
there is in that language no distinction. It has only 



230 SIMON PETER : 

a single word for stone, and that is the word ccphas, 
which might have been used in this instance, and so 
have become long afterward the name by which Peter 
is sometimes called in the Epistles. 

Here occurs, for the first time in the New Testa- 
ment, the word church. Literally, it signifies, " the 
called ones," the elect of God, the entire body of be- 
lievers on the earth. When Jesus says "the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it," he uses a gate as a 
symbol of power. That is an old and familiar form 
of speech in oriental countries, where the capital 
cities were generally surrounded with walls. Even 
now we are accustomed to speak of the Sublime 
Porte as the gate, or the center of authority, in the 
Ottoman Empire. The Saviour intends to proclaim 
that the church is eternally safe ; all machinations of 
infernal malignity put forth by the powers of dark- 
ness will prove futile ; nothing can ever be permitted 
to harm those whom the Almighty chooses and 
groups into an organization for his work. 

So far the interpretation of this passage is quite 
easy. But we now reach those remarkable words 
concerning the power of the keys, which have in 
the ages gone by made this part of the inspired 
record the Waterloo of ecclesiastical history. 

The mighty question which now agitates and 
divides Christendom is just this : What is intended 
by the "rock"? And who was it, if anybody, to 
whom supremacy was given by the declaration 
of our Lord ? To all this there is to be given an 
answer, which is likely to be received as final, ac- 



THE GIFT OF THE KEYS. 23 1 

cording to our previous education and training in the 
truth. 

The adherents of the Church of Rome reply that 
Simon Peter personally was made by these words 
primate in all ecclesiastical organization and power 
on the earth, and that for all future time. They say he 
was the first in an unbroken series of popes, the con- 
tinuous line and official succession of which has re- 
mained perfect even to the present generation. To 
him, they insist, were given the keys of all exclusion, 
and the plenitude of all power, till the end of the 
world. And they claim now that he had, and after 
him his successors have had and do have, the rule of 
the race, men and kingdoms alike, as if a true and per- 
manent vice-regency of Almighty God had been estab- 
lished in him and in those who came after him. Since 
the decision of a late so-called council, the popes are 
held to be infallible, and always supreme, by reason of 
the transmitted commission and supremacy of Simon 
Peter, delivered to the old fisherman of Bethsaida 
there by the side of the cliff in Caesarea-Philippi. 

Lest these statements should be doubted, it is well 
enough to quote a single deliverance of the papal 
hierarchy which is a part of the common history of 
the world. It is the Bull of Pius V., and is entitled 
"The Damnation and Excommunication of Elizabeth, 
Queen of England, and Her Adherents, with an Ad- 
dition of Other Punishments." In the body of it 
occur these two sentences, which are all we need 
for our present purpose : 

"He that reigneth on high, to whom is given all 



232 SIMON PETER: 

power in heaven and in earth, committed one Holy 
Catholic and Apostolic Church (out of which there is 
no salvation) to one alone upon earth, namely, to Peter, 
the Prince of the Apostles, and to Peter's successor, 
the Bishop of Rome, to be governed in fulness of pow- 
er. Him alone he made Prince over all people and 
all kingdoms, to pluck up, destroy, scatter, con- 
sume, plant, and build." 

Such an interpretation of this part of Matthew's 
gospel, it hardly needs to be said, is rejected by 
Protestants the world over, in every measure and de- 
gree. We cut the chain of links off close up to the 
staple from which it hangs; we say there is not the 
least ground for an assertion that anything of this 
sort whatsoever was bestowed upon this Simon, son 
of Jonas, then or ever afterwards; and that no allu- 
sion whatsoever was made to any possible successors, 
or to any claims they might set up. This disciple 
was not made supreme pontiff in any conceivable 
sense. Whatever power was symbolized by the 
offer of what are here denominated " the keys," was, 
in another conversation, given, in exactly the same 
terms, to all the rest of the twelve ; and nothing was 
said about any successors to them either. And as 
to personal steadfastness, not even Peter's best friend 
would do his memory any favor by calling attention 
to the un-rock-like career he left behind him in the 
Scripture history. A church that, in such a period 
as that was, had no foundation more stable than Si- 
mon Peter to stand upon would have gone into ruins 
under his pitiful denial of his Lord before he was 



THE GIFT OF THE KEYS. 233 

dead. If any one desires to fashion a picture of this 
" first pope," the predecessor of that Pius who wrote 
such impudent and blasphemous words concerning 
the Queen of England, let him take the moment 
when, just outside the gate of the high priest's pal- 
ace, he stands weeping over his awful defection, and 
the crowing of a cock disturbs his soul a hundred- 
fold depths deeper than the Bull did that of Elizabeth 
Plantagenet, the daughter of Henry VIII. 

Singularly enough, in the gospel of the evangelist 
Mark, that one in particular which Peter is always 
credited with having supervised, no mention whatso- 
ever is made of this commission in its terms or in its 
implications. The journey to Caesarea-Philippi is 
detailed, and some of the incidents dwelt upon ; but 
this entire feature of the story is left^ out. Think of 
any other pope in the succeeding centuries leaving 
that declaration out of his bulls ! Simon Peter 
seemed to admit that the offer of the keys did not 
need to be put on record. And if it was the mod- 
esty of this man which prompted the omission, all we 
have to say is, that was a characteristic, at any rate, 
which did not descend to later ages, or light on any 
one of those who claimed the succession. 

But now, on the other hand, setting up no claims 
whatsoever in their own behalf, and so having no 
theory of supremacy to defend, the Protestant 
churches over the world present these two forms of 
interpretation of our Lord's words, either of which 
seems a fairer rendering of their meaning, and both 
of which instantly rebut all argument or conjecture 



234 simon peter: 

that a papal supremacy was intended by our Lord to 
be established in Peter's person. 

Some people like to think that the confession 
which Simon uttered — that is, the truth in it, the 
doctrine in it — was the thing intended when Jesus 
spoke of a " rock." The language is all rhetorical. 
Remember the external circumstances at the time in 
which, and at the spot near which, the words were 
spoken. The picture in the sentence is that of an 
edifice conspicuously set upon a rock. Well, there 
was right there before the eyes of all of them a vast 
rock, and on it a newly erected temple of beautiful 
white marble, a heathen place of worship, but a fine 
building nevertheless, and certainly calculated to 
suggest the figure. It was the habit of our Lord to 
catch such apt similitudes. But what is the natural 
thought under the symbol ? Many expositors would 
make their notion clear by a slight paraphrase. 
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God," 
said Peter. In substance the Saviour appears to 
have replied : " That is true ; the Holy Ghost has 
communicated to you a new and wonderful doctrine; 
we might have known you were to be depended 
upon; you are the embodiment of your own confes- 
sion ; it is Peter through and through, grand and 
characteristic ; you are a rock, and your creed is a 
rock, too; this fine answer is weighty truth; a great 
organization can well be set upon it, as that edifice 
up yonder is set on the cliff over the fountain ; your 
doctrine shall be made the basis of the New Testa- 
ment church !" 



THE GIFT OF THE KEYS, 235 

Now, that is certainly dignified and scholarly as 
an exposition of the words of the Lord Jesus. 
Many there are who accept it as quite satisfactory. 
But there are others who prefer to think that 
he meant only the external organization of the 
church any way, and referred simply to some forms 
of construction over which this man was to have 
personal supervision. They are solicitous lest 
their antagonists should say that it gives an un- 
natural strain to language to apply the word " rock " 
to a man, because his name signified rock, and then 
turn in the next instant to apply it the rather to a 
mere statement of his belief which he had just made. 
And they feel that the symmetry and intelligent 
connection of thought might as well be preserved 
between the clauses. They are willing, therefore, 
to admit that there might be a sense in which Simon 
Peter personally was designated as the rock on 
which the new organization should be erected. And 
so they call attention to the structure of the entire 
address, and proceed to restrict carefully the notion 
contained and expressed in the word " build." This 
address of our Lord to Peter cannot possibly refer 
to a spiritual headship in dealing with the souls of 
men ; it must mean some sort of prominence only 
in the practical task of organizing the visible con- 
gregations under the preaching of the gospel ; and 
that was most assuredly given to this particular one of 
the apostolic band. 

" Kingdom " here signifies, therefore, the church 
on earth. There is no assumption so violent as that 



27,6 SIxMON PETER: 

upon which the whole value of the discussion, so far 
as the papal communion is concerned, must be con- 
sidered to turn. Two things at once are arrogated 
as given into the hands of the Catholic priesthood. 
It is claimed that church privileges are in their ex- 
clusive patronage and prerogative. Nobody outside 
of the Romish communion can be saved, and the 
priests only have the right to decide who shall come 
in or stay in. Then at the same moment this very 
language is adroitly diverted so that it shall not be 
the membership in the visible church which passes 
into discussion, but, in any given case, it is the 
eternal ruin or welfare of the man's soul in hell or 
heaven that is put at stake. For did not the Lord tell 
Simon Peter that whatsoever he should bind on earth 
should be bound in heaven, and whatsoever he should 
loose on e-arth should be loosed in heaven ? The Roman 
Catholic Church would not hold position a month if 
it were not believed by the deluded multitudes that 
the priests had power to control the souls of living 
men and decide the destiny they enter beyond the 
grave. 

It is pitiable to be obliged to descend into parsing 
for the sake of argument ; but there is no way of 
showing the perversion of truth here, except to call 
attention to the grammatical phraseology. The 
term rendered " whatsoever " is in the neuter gen- 
der, both in Greek and English. This is explicit and 
unmistakable. It is not whomsoever, but what- 
soever. It must certainly, therefore, refer to things 
and not to persons. It cannot mean souls; it must 



THE GIFT OF THE KEYS. 2^7 

mean rites and forms, ceremonies and orders of 
arrangement, and principles of organization. In this 
declaration of Scripture there is no allusion to heaven 
as a fixed place or abode of happiness above. It is 
awful and abhorrent to think of such a passage as this 
giving the control to men over so vast a matter as 
the future disposal of other men's souls. The 
"keys of the kingdom of heaven " is an expression 
which must be understood as belonging to the visible 
church, and having not even an implied bearing 
upon the infinite and august decisions of the future 
state. To bind means to fix, to settle ; and to loose 
means to reject, to abrogate. Jesus is talking about 
the mere institutions of the church as a body, and is 
putting Peter forward to set up such as would best 
complete the organization. 

In paraphrase, this address of Jesus to Simon 
would seem to read thus : "I will give to thee the 
responsibility of modeling and establishing a form of 
government and management of the church which I 
wish you to construct on the earth. Whatsoever 
thou shalt ordain as best and most convenient for 
its effective action and perpetuity I will accept. 
Whatsoever thou shalt esteem needful and indis- 
pensable, judging from prudent intercourse with men, 
shall also be given authority by the sanction of God 
in heaven. And whatsoever appears too strict or 
rigid, either in the old ceremonies or the former pre- 
cepts or rituals, shall be rejected also on high. It 
shall be left to thee, Simon Peter, in connection with 
the other apostles, to decide what should be the cus- 



238 SIMON PETER: 

toms and forms and principles of the visible church, 
and what shall be optional and what shall be obli- 
gatory." 

And so, we may add in passing, that the other 
parallel instruction, addressed to the disciples as a 
whole, in the passage which has generally been asso- 
ciated with this — that which has the expression con- 
cerning " remitting sins" — means simply the orderly 
exercise of church discipline to be administered. 

That this explanation of the commission to Peter 
is the true one, is corroborated by several facts in 
the subsequent history. One most significant matter 
of observation is that in the real issues involved 
Simon Peter never did have any such primacy as 
might be called a supremacy over the rest of the 
apostles. One of the very latest acts of his life was 
such that Paul, in sharp words, withstood him to the 
face because "he was to be blamed." Peter never 
seems to have been consulted more than the rest. 
Indeed, when what some have insisted upon calling 
the First Council in Jerusalem was held, it was 
James, and not Simon Peter, who presided and ulti- 
mately issued the decrees of that body. And the 
case is far stronger when we look at the question of 
spiritual supremacy. For here we have the apostle's 
own words for our help. He never claimed any- 
thing resembling headship over his brethren. On 
the contrary, the language of one of his epistles dis- 
tinctly repudiates it on his own part, and exhorts all 
the rest of the ecclesiastics of his day to continue 
humble, and be on their guard against ambition and 



THE GIFT OF THE KEYS. 239 

pride : " The elders which are among you I exhort, 
who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings 
of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall 
be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among 
you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, 
but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready 
mind ; neither as being lords over God's heritage, 
but being ensamples to the flock. And when the 
chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown 
of glory that fadeth not away." 

Think of words like these put into a Bull addressed 
to an assemblage of the clergy by a modern pope ! 
Peter's successors would be likely to find small com- 
fort in Peter's two epistles. 

But now as to mere organization of the visible 

church, as historically detailed to us in the Book of 

the Acts, the case is very different. Simon Peter 

did have just such a leadership as this special office 

would imply in establishing the congregations 

and gathering the people into one. He had " the 

keys " in such a sense as that he first opened the 

doors of divine communication to both the Jews- and 

the Gentiles. The figure seems to mean just the 

ordinary opening of the counsels of God to men in 

the preaching of the truth. It is given as a fact that, 

when the Jews in those days made a man a Doctor 

of the Law, they put into his hands the key of the 

room in the Temple where the sacred books were kept; 

signifying by such a symbolic act that authority was 

now conferred upon him to teach and to expound the 

"mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." Certainly 
11 



240 SIMON PETER: 

Peter received the " keys " in this sense; for it is a 
marvelous fact that he as the very pioneer in the work 
first preached the whole gospel of the resurrection to 
the Israelites on the Day of Pentecost, and then formed 
the converts into an organic body. Even after that 
we find him in the advance. He preached to the 
first Jew and the first Gentile the message to men as 
announced in Jesus Christ. 

Two things there have been which it would seem 
as if ambitious men had always been trying to get, 
but which have been deliberately and by name set 
apart to Christhimself ; these two are the Foundation 
and the Keys. Simon Peter ascribes the first of these 
joyfully and enthusiastically to Him ; he even quotes 
Scripture to give weight to his counsel showing 
where it belongs : "Ye also, as lively stones, are built 
up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up 
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Be- 
hold, I lay in Sion a chief corner-stone, elect, 
precious ; and he that believeth on Him shall not be 
confounded." 

The other of these great objects of human ambi- 
tion, the keys, our divine Lord spoke out of the 
heavens above to claim for his own. While the evan- 
gelist John was lying at his feet as dead, the Son of 
Man laid his hand upon him and said : "Fear not; I 
am the first and the last. I am he that liveth, and was 
dead ; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen ; 
and have the keys of hell and of death.'' After this 
the same exalted Being gave him a message to dc- 



THE GIFT OF THE KEYS. 24 1 

liver to one of the churches, and in order to have 
it authoritative and final he adds this endorsement at 
the beginning: "These things saith he that is holy, 
he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he 
that openeth, and no man shutteth ; and shutteth, 
and no man openeth." 

Christ Jesus the Lord, therefore, and not Simon 
Peter at all, is the true Rock-Foundation of the 
Church, on which, if it stands, it stands safely and 
forever. It would be pitiably insecure, if it sought 
to plant itself upon an old disciple, with a series 
of popes coming along in train after him. "Other 
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which 
is Christ." Why should anyone desire to take away, 
if he could, the two chief prerogatives of the Son 
of Man who was the Son of God ? "Our Rock is not 
as their rock, our enemies themselves being judges." 

Yet there is no good in belittling the real ex- 
cellence, or the true official rank of this disciple. 
Without doubt Simon Peter was put forward for a 
specific and honorable end. To deny or evade 
this is to become quite too protestant for truth. It 
has been said again and again that this brave-hearted 
and successful preacher added as many Christians to 
the church of the risen Redeemer, in its first year, as, 
for many centuries after, were added by all the rest 
of the apostolic band together. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

"BEHIND ME, SATAN." 

While Jesus, with his company of disciples gathered 
around him, was still lingering in the region of Caesarea, 
he seemed to think that the time had arrived in which 
he ought to instruct them more definitely concerning 
the atonement as a doctrine of chief importance to 
all who wished to be saved. And on this occasion two 
peculiarities of Simon Peter came prominently into 
view, his faith and his forwardness. The one was 
commended, the other was signally rebuked. We 
spend a few moments in this chapter in showing 
how the grand confession of his Master was followed 
by the most miserable mistake the disciple ever 
made. 

Hitherto Jesus had taught his followers concerning 
some of the mysteries of his Messiahship. To all his 
instruction on that head they gave their joyful assent, 
admitting at once his claims to be the long-promised 
King of the Jews. The profane world was divided in 
estimates ; they were united in one positive acknowl- 
edgment now, which this comrade Peter had just 
voiced in theirbehalf, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God." 

Still there remained the most difficult and dangerous 
task for him to perform. He must damp their glow- 
ing ardor; he must wound their feelings of personal 
regard ; he must check all their anticipations of the 
comingback of the old grandeurs to the realm of David. 



"BEHIND ME, SATAN." 243 

They must be made to see that priesthood ranks be- 
fore royalty always in the gospel economy. Christ 
was to suffer before he could reign. This they ought 
to know. 

" From that time forth began Jesus to show unto 
his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem and 
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and 
scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third 
day." This task was difficult, because of human dul- 
ness. The disciples had lost the true idea of a spirit- 
ual kingdom. All the images of splendor in pro- 
phecy were to them sensuous merely. The King was 
only an oriental monarch ; the kingdom was no more 
than a wide empire of extensive sway. And clear 
down to the last moment, their inveterate question 
was the unceasing refrain, "Wilt thou at this time re- 
store the kingdom to Israel ?" 

Moreover, this task was dangerous, because such 
teaching necessarily ran counter to the strongest pre- 
judices of their education and previous belief. They 
revered Jerusalem; he told them that there should be 
just the spot of peril to him. They had the highest 
regard for their traditional leaders ; he detailed with 
calm significance the treatment which the elders, chief 
priests, and scribes were to give him. And there was 
unmeasurable risk in such revelations as these now. 
A rejection by the Sanhedrin would carry force to 
many a mind. And delicate indeed was the duty 
Jesus had to perform, when he attempted to teach 
those disciples that through death he was to live; 
by the cross only should he come to the crown. 



244 SIMON teter: 

We are not surprised, therefore, to meet an inter- 
ruption at this point. No one would be half so likely 
to speak out unbidden as Simon Peter. The narra- 
tive advances a step to note his interference. With a 
quick revulsion of feeling this man must have passed 
from the mood of deep reverence in which he had 
made his noble confession of faith, into a mood of 
surprising presumption, for we find him proffering ad- 
vice to his Lord. " Then Peter took him, and began 
to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord ; 
this shall not be unto thee." 

Perhaps this means that Peter took Jesus one side a 
little, turned his face away from the others so as to 
whisper his expostulation. This expression, "Be it 
far from thee," is singularly unfortunate. The margin 
renders it in much greater exactness, " Pity thyself." 
Simon only meant to cheer up our Lord a little : 
" Favor yourself; do not put pain into your pros- 
pect." 

It would not be easy to conceive an act more 
thoroughly exhibitory and illustrative of this disci- 
ple's character than that which is here recorded. It 
derives more significance from the fact that the 
narrative of it is fullest and most detailed in that gos- 
pel which Peter himself indited to Mark. That evan- 
gelist does not so much as mention the grand enco- 
mium which "Simon Bar-jona" received, but he 
spreads out this humiliating mistake of his at full 
length. 

The entire scene is exquisitely true to nature. 
Peter was probably elated above measure by the 



SATAN." 245 

favor just shown him in putting him into the lead of 
the rest. The first exercise of his " headship " was 
found in this absurd, foolish presumption. He who 
had just been entrusted with the organization of 
Christ's church began his administration with an ex- 
postulation addressed to its supreme Head ! 

It showed Simon's ignorance. Could there have 
been a more miserable misunderstanding of the Mes- 
siah's errand? It exhibited his precipitation also; 
he must take the Saviour to task there immediately 
in the presence of the whole company. It made his 
vanity conspicuous, for his very manner seems to be 
familiar, as he turns Jesus' head away a little out of 
hearing; the patronizing temper of the words is 
singularly offensive to all our notions of propriety. 

But we must admit that it displayed Simon's no- 
ble generosity most of all. He could not bear to 
have the Saviour put himself in pain. Doubtless, he 
thought that Jesus was unnecessarily depressed in 
spirits. He desired to encourage him and prevent 
his being so down-hearted. His sympathies were 
aroused. Still, admitting all this, extenuating his 
behavior as we may, there remains on every mind 
the impression of Peter's weakness. He was forward 
to no purpose, and impertinent only to his own 
shame. 

So, as we return to the record once more, we find 
a rebuke addressed to his presumption. A startling 
reprehension fell back upon him, unparalleled and 
overwhelming. "But he turned and said unto Peter, 
Get thee behind me, Satan : thou art an offence unto 



246 SIMON peter: 

mc : for thou savorest not the things that be of 
God, but those that be of men." 

The Saviour would not listen to anything of the 
sort. This language is explosive and violent. Two 
particles are chosen which indicate intense energy of 
reprobation. " Go, begone ! " As if Christ had said, 
"Away with you! Out of my sight!" This was 
the same form of expression he employed when in 
the solemn hours of his official temptation he had re- 
buked the devil himself. " Savorest " is a poor 
word ; our Lord meant to say that Simon had only 
gross, low human views. Our new revision renders 
it: "thou mindest not the things of God, but the 
things of men." 

This peremptory language illustrates with equal 
clearness the character of our Lord. His deep ab- 
horrence of everything sinful comes suddenly to no- 
tice. It is useless to attempt to represent the gos- 
pel as all tenderness and soft forbearance. The 
Master himself had stern words at command ; he 
could make sharp, stinging utterances when they 
were needed. 

What a rift in the clouds of mere earthly concep- 
tion this one small sentence opens ! What altogether 
inadequate notions of Christ's divine work must this 
disciple have had before he could possibly indulge 
himself to such a proposal! Was Peter willing to 
forego the making of an atonement for sin? 

How quickly we are reminded of the sad remark 
Jesus once made on another occasion : " I have a 
baptism to he baptized with, and how am I strait- 



"BEHIND ME, SATAN." 247 

ened till it be accomplished!" Now and then, all 
along his career, there came to him the recollection 
of the "hour" which was approaching. It shone 
luridly in upon even his happiest seasons. He only 
saw the heaven-side of this economy of redemption. 
The great plan of sacrificial atonement swept out into 
his view ; but he could not make even his disciples 
understand it. So he bore his burden unshared. 

Yet, although he was misconstrued, he would not 
drop down his standard. We see here that he reas- 
serts the doctrine, for which the now penitent Peter 
perhaps had more relish, and extends the reach of it 
even to his followers. He was to suffer, and they were 
to suffer likewise. And he closes this most instruct- 
ive conversation with plain suggestions of warning and 
affectionate counsel. He wished to have no one 
join lot with him under mistake. No man should be 
permitted even to "pity himself." It was not a light 
thing to become a Christian. There was a cross 
coming before each crown. " Then said Jesus unto 
his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him 
deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. 
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it : and 
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." 

We reach now the lessons to be learned by us all 
from such an incident in the life of this disciple. 

Begin with this : "Let him that thinketh he stand- 
eth, take heed lest he fall." There could be no more 
vivid illustration, no more strenuous enforcement, of 
these words of another apostle, than the frightful rever- 
sal of language used towards this one. 
11* 



248 SIMON peter: 

Peter never appeared better than at the opening of 
this interview. The sentence of approval : "Blessed 
art thou, Simon Bar-jona:" will go down the 
ages. But now how violent seems the reprobation : 
"Away with you, devil ! Get thee behind me, 
Satan ! " 

We shall miss the instruction if we suppose this 
belonged peculiarly and all alone to Simon, the son of 
Jonas. That spurning rebuke, that withering name, 
may come to any one of us in the hour of pride ; for 
there is just this mixture in every man, the Petra 
and the Satana. The Rock and the Devil dispute 
for the sway and possession in all human hearts. 

We may learn also that it is the hour of praise which 
is oftenest the hour of peril. Reproach has this one 
good thing about it ; it does not distract our senses 
and make us lose head. That was a wise remark 
made by an English orator: "Every man is stronger 
for knowing the worst he can know about himself, 
and for acting upon this knowledge." But compli- 
ments bewilder us, and the sense of a great achieve- 
ment puffs up. 

Simon Peter was proud to be told that he knew 
some things that no other flesh and blood had ever 
found out. So he proposed to give some new 
opinions as to the unnecessary difficulties of the 
atonement. And that was quite beyond him. 

It is the full cup which is so very difficult to carry 
without spilling its contents. " Indeed," says the 
poetic Jeremy Taylor, "it is hard for a man to be 
cried up for a saint, to walk upon the spire of glory, 



" BEHIND ME, SATAN. 249 

and to have no adherence or impure mixtures cf 
vanity grow on the outside of his heart." 

We may learn here, once more, the temper in 
which to receive rebuke. The fact has come to our 
knowledge, more than once in the study of Simon's 
biography, that in his disposition he was a quick and 
passionate man. Hard words might reasonably be 
expected to make him fly into anger. But there is 
no evidence of any such weakness here. He knew 
he deserved all his Lord said to him on this occasion. 
To all appearance, Simon bent his head acquiescingly 
to the reprimand he had merited. 

Indeed, more than this ; there is reason to believe 
that this disciple, humiliated beyond measure as he 
must have been, not only made no impatient reply, 
and offered no excited extenuation, but actually 
heard and heeded the admonition, and tried to grow 
better under it. For, some years afterwards, when he 
was writing his Epistle to Christians, he said : " For 
what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your 
faults, ye shall take it patiently ? But if, when ye do 
well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is ac- 
ceptable with God." 

This man was willing to bear all that the speech of 
people could bring to him. If he deserved the 
rebuke — as in this instance he knew he did — then he 
bore it because he had merited it. If he did not de- 
serve the reproaches they heaped upon him, then he 
bore them still patiently, because forbearance was a 
grace that had a likeness to his Lord in it. 

In this was the greatness of that disciple. His 



250 SIMON PETER : 

image rises before us in a simple majesty of personal 
power. For all the time he was trying to improve 
himself, he was battling his besetting sins, whatever 
they were, he was praying for higher attainments in 
grace. 

It is a sad sign almost always when a young 
Christian becomes impatient of reproof, and begins to 
suspect those who would seek to give him help. It 
does not matter much how we reach it ; but surely 
the aim of our religious life ought to be, to become 
more free from faults, and more advanced in holiness. 
He, who will kindly check us when we are going too 
far, prompt us when we are laggard, teach us when 
we are ill-informed, and encourage us a little when 
we are trying to do our best — he is our truest friend. 

Again, we learn here the deleterious influence of a 
defective theology. When our Lord tried to give his 
disciples clearer instruction concerning the atonement, 
showing how he should have to die on the cross, this 
impetuous man Peter began to chide him, and plead 
with him to give all that part of his work up. He 
was not evangelical in his views. 

The suffering of Jesus Christ is really the center of 
all proper understanding of the gospel. He who 
has not embraced that as the foundation truth of his 
piety and his hope of heaven, has not yet attained the 
repose of an intelligent faith. If Peter's absurd 
counsel to the world's Redeemer had been heard and 
heeded, not one human soul would ever have been 
saved. 

It is not possible that our Lord came to this earth 



"BEHIND ME, SATAN." 25 1 

merely to live an exemplary life, and set a pattern of 
moral correctness, however attractive and beautiful. 
He came to die, that men might be delivered from 
the curse of God's broken law. Now to have all 
the brave love of Simon for Jesus, and yet be so 
bitterly mistaken as to be willing to miss the death 
at Jerusalem, is faulty to the last degree. No 
wonder our Lord would not bear a suggestion so 
abhorrent. 

So we see what to say when unintelligent teachers 
tell us to throw away our notions of sacrifice. The 
Devil himself would well approve a theological system 
which would simply omit Christ's death on the cross. 
Hence, when any visionary would tempt us with a 
philosophic scheme of mere conduct to surrender 
this grand doctrine of justification by faith through 
a Redeemer crucified, our words of defence and re- 
pudiation could not be better chosen than Christ 
chose his : " Get thee behind me, Satan ! " 

Finally, we may learn from this story what is the 
best preparation for usefulness among the tempted 
and tried : it is simply to have been tempted and 
tried ourselves. 

Here we come back to Simon Peter's two wonder- 
ful letters once more. He learned his wisdom in the 
school of falling and failure. So you see how tenderly 
he speaks, how impressively he warns, how affection- 
ately he encourages. Any poor, troubled, inconsistent 
Christian would do well to study what he had to say. 
" Humble yourselves, 1 ' he pleads, "under the mighty 
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." 



252 SIMON peter: 

Do not disrespect Simon Peter to-day, because 
you hear the Lord call him " Satan." For remember 
how Jesus bore with him to the end. And no 
words of Simon's are more pathetic than those he 
uses when he says : " Account that the long-suffer- 
ing of our Lord is salvation." 

All we need is to move forward, and keep moving. 
And as I close this chapter, I chose to end it with 
those fitting sentences of Peter himself, the last he 
ever spoke to the churches: " Ye, therefore, beloved, 
seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye 
also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall 
from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace and 
in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. 
Amen." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

"WITH HIM' IN THE HOLY MOUNT." 

Somewhere we have all met the story of a Span- 
ish artist who painted the scene of the Last Supper, 
choosing the moment in which our Lord was reply- 
ing to Judas, "Thou hast said." One of the by- 
standers, designing to offer merited compliment to a 
work so excellent, directed attention to the natural- 
ness of the wine glowing in the glasses on the board. 
To his surprise the painter, with an expression of 
impatient disgust, immediately dashed his brushes 
over the unoffending goblets, completely erasing 
them at a stroke. 

" Nothing shall be permitted to remain on my 
canvas," he exclaimed, "that can even for a moment 
arrest the eye of a beholder enough to turn it from 
the countenance of the Christ." 

All this is true of Scripture study; with such a 
spirit each of us ought always to depict the incidents 
of the sacred narrative. Jesus Christ should be ex- 
hibited — as he really is — the one center of all excel- 
lence and attraction. Hence, it is not easy to conduct 
our story of Simon Peter's life without seeming some- 
times to cross what more appropriately belongs to 
the life of our divine Lord. 

But here in the history of the Transfiguration it 
surely is not either necessary or becoming that we 
should pass by the suggestive circumstances which 
attended the scene. Nor is the companionship in 



254 simon peter: 

which Jesus stood without spiritual instruction. Nor 
even is the behavior of the slumberous disciples prof- 
itless as a reminder of our human weakness in the 
hour of greatest advantage. 

A few words are needed here concerning the spot 
before we attempt to draw nigh the spectacle ; where 
was this " mountain apart ?" 

The current tradition has been undisturbed for 
many centuries that this august event took place 
upon Mount Tabor. There is nothing in the sacred 
Scriptures to invalidate the statement, and surely 
there is no unfitness, intrinsically, in the locality ren- 
dering it unworthy. The weight of scholarly au- 
thority seems going steadily in favor of some spur of 
Mount Hermon as the locality chosen for this scene. 
Opinion may carry the day, but the arguments do 
not help much. And there will always remain a 
tranquilly disposed few who will sympathize with 
good Bishop Hall in his deprecation of needless 
change : " For the place, tradition hath taken it still 
for Tabor ; and I list not to disturb it without war- 
rant." 

Up into this mountain, then, we understand our 
Lord one evening went to pray. There he was trans- 
figured ; "His raiment became shining exceeding 
white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white 
them: and there appeared unto them Elias, with Moses: 
and they were talking with Jesus." Grand, vague, 
and beautiful that magnificent spectacle rises upon 
the devout vision. 

Five persons besides Jesus stood on that mountain 



"WITH HIM IN THE HOLY MOUNT." 255 

together. He took with him three — James, Peter, 
and John ; and there came to him on his arrival 
two more — Moses and Elijah. Suppose we look 
upon this scene as the earliest union prayer-meeting 
known to New Testament times. Then we should see 
that one man represented the Prophets, one the Law, 
and one the Gospel — the three grand dispensations 
of divine grace. Then we should notice, also, in the 
assembly that two persons had been dead, and three 
were living, and one was wearing the supernatural 
glory which the living are said to receive when they 
enter the rest that remaineth. 

So there comes a lesson here at the very beginning 
of our patient study: if ever the church on earth 
shall be united into one body, it will be when all 
names and rituals and dispensations are gathered 
most obediently around the one Christ. 

Three " beholds " are introduced into the narrative 
which is given in Matthew's Gospel as to the particu- 
lars of this vision of the transfiguration; they render 
his account exceedingly picturesque and spirited. 
These will furnish us a sufficient analysis. 

I. " Behold ! Moses and Elias ! " What did the 
presence of these ancient prophets on this mysterious 
occasion with Jesus really mean? There must have 
been some powerful reason for summoning men from 
the dead, " who appeared in glory, and spake of his 
decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." 
We must conclude that there was, in the purpose of 
this resumption of Christ's divinity, the plan to show 
that all the teachings which the law and the prophets 



256 SIMON peter: 

had offered were united with and centered in the 
atonement he was here on earth to work out for 
human sin. 

Strange indeed, and otherwise inexplicable, is it to 
find in such a moment joined with the Saviour the 
sudden and miraculous appearance of these men so 
long dead. Those colossal leaders of ancient times, 
whose very history appears to step from mountain to 
mountain — as if they were fitted to tread only the 
high places of the earth — now stood sharing the 
celestial glory of the Son of God before the astonished 
gaze of the disciples. But stranger and more start- 
ling still is it to find them conversing only on the one 
theme of redemption by the gospel, — " his decease 
which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." They 
talked over the old, old story of the cross, as the sub- 
ject of highest and deepest interest to all. 

That very doctrine, then, which Simon Peter had 
found so difficult, was perfectly familiar to both of 
these glorified prophets. All the types of Moses, 
and all the predictions of Elijah, now hurried to come 
and make modest obeisance to the substance and the 
realities of Jesus as he fulfilled them. These Old 
Testament symbolisms and ceremonials advanced now 
out from the shadows, to arrange themselves around 
the story of atonement — like the sheaves of the sons 
of Jacob around the sheaf of the typical son Joseph. 

Nor is this all that seems to be taught. The unex- 
pected reappearance of such guests upon this occasion 
cannot be without important meaning as to the state 
of the blessed ones in heaven. We find the disciples 



"WITH HIM IN THE HOLY MOUNT." 257 

going away conversing about the resurrection of the 
dead, and asking what it could mean. Evidently our 
Lord designed to offer here this new doctrine of 
another life. How real are both worlds to the confi- 
dence of an intelligent and unwavering belief! Mark 
these forms — recognized, named, shining in glory. 
It is plain they were bodies, though immediately from 
the celestial presence of God. Fifteen hundred years 
had passed since Moses had left this land of dying 
men, and from the summit of Mount Nebo had en- 
tered the land of the eternally living. And nine 
hundred years had passed since Elijah had been 
caught up in the whirlwind to an infinite existence 
beyond the stars. Yet here they were alive and 
speaking, in no feature injured or changed. " Them 
that sleep in Jesus" Jesus was already beginning to 
"bring with him." 

The doctrine of the resurrection was up to this 
time measurably unknown and always difficult. These 
disciples had "had Moses and the prophets;" would 
they believe any better "if one rose from the dead" ? 
Here, then, singularly enough, Moses in person and 
one of the most notable of the prophets did rise from 
the dead. They were offering in their own presence 
the c most palpable and convincing evidence of the life 
and safety of those who had died. It is worth hold- 
ing, this thought of comfort : how close seems that 
future to our present when fifteen hundred years are 
not allowed to count in the reckoning ! How very 
near appears that abode of the redeemed when the 
communion of saints is achieved so easily ! Said 



258 SIMON peter: 

Beza, when Calvin died, "Now is heaven more dear, 
and now is coming death less dreadful! " 

II. While this conversation went on with Jesus, a 
new wonder was displayed : " Behold ! a cloud ! " All 
the evangelists take pains to mention this phenomenon 
in all its details; Matthew, however, adds an epithet 
which no other narrator employs, and it is a singularly 
specific term of description. He says it was " a bright 
cloud." And this does not mean a lit cloud, as if 
something was shining upon it; it was a luminous 
cloud, and from itself came its wonderful brilliance. 
It is likely the display took place in the darkness, 
somewhere between the midnight and the dawn. 

There are some other peculiarities in the language 
here, artlessly scattered through the chapters of the 
three historians, of which notice might not ordinarily 
be taken by the cursory reader. Peter proposed to 
erect three tabernacles. The voice came out of a 
cloitd. They talked of a decease. The entire scenery 
of this transfiguration drama is intensely in the Old 
Testament spirit; it seems to savor of the ceremonial 
and the ritual. For the word decease in the Greek 
is exodus. There was an ancient exodus once of 
great historic moment and symbolic meaning. There 
were tabernacles in that day; and over the chief 
tabernacle of all was a cloud; and out of that cloud 
came often a voice which shook the mercy-seat. 

Remember also that once before, away upon 
another mountain, Moses had seen a bush lit without 
being consumed, and a voice had likewise spoken on 
that occasion from out of the midst of it. And re- 



"WITH HIM IN THE HOLY MOUNT." 259 

member that Elijah had once had a vision in a moun- 
tain also, and in that case there had been a storm- 
cloud and a luminous fire, and the voice which spoke 
to him was small and still. Both of these prophets 
had been made afraid by the presence of God and 
had covered their faces as the disciples here covered 
theirs. 

We readily perceive, therefore, from all the sur- 
roundings of this spectacle, that our Lord meant to 
identify the spirit of that old dispensation with the 
new, as well as the church. He himself had dwelt in 
the pillar of cloud before which Moses was wont to 
remain uncovered. He personally was the " Angel- 
Jehovah" who had guided Israel through the great 
and terrible wilderness while they dwelt in taberna- 
cles. Hence, the light in the cloud which these dis- 
ciples were now looking upon was the same as that 
which used to glimmer on the mercy-seat. All the 
old economy was passing away into the new. All 
that the ancient dispensation had inculcated in the 
law — all that it had revealed in the visions of the 
seers — was simply the fact and the meaning of the 
atonement which Jesus was just making in the 
" decease" to be accomplished at Jerusalem. 

III. This is not left to conjecture: "Behold! a 
voice!" While they were looking and wondering, 
words fell down out of the cloud: "This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye 
him." It was this voice which made especial impres- 
sion on the memory of Simon Peter. Thirty years 
after, when all injunctions of secrecy were removed, 



260 SIMON peter: 

this apostle put it into writing and told the entire 
world what the disciples had thought about it. No 
one can read his glowing language without being 
convinced that they reckoned this scene as the main 
confirmation of gospel truth : " For we have not fol- 
lowed cunningly devised fables, when we made 
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. 
For he received from God the Father honor and 
glory, when there came such a voice to him from the 
excellent glory, This is my beloved Son in whom I am 
well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven 
we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 
We have also a more sure word of prophecy : where - 
unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light 
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, 
and the daystar arise in your hearts." 

It would seem as if more might be made than 
usually is made of this transfiguration scene as an 
argument for the truth of our religion. That voice 
from heaven is the summons of Jehovah in person to 
the world at large. It was in the Old Testament; 
here it is in the New. It was spoken at the baptism 
once before. The willful race of unbelievers may 
cry out in derision, "It thunders!" But one day 
that voice will be heard calmly saying again: "I 
sent my Son to you long ago, and bade you hear 
him ; why did you not listen then to what I gave him 
to say?" 

We turn now from the bright and beautiful spect- 
acle of these glorified visitants on the mount, to the 



"WITH HIM IN THE HOLY MOUNT." 26 1 

somewhat more prosaic picture of the three living 
men who accompanied Jesus. Specially, as a revela- 
tion of Simon Peter the rest of the story will com- 
mand our attention. Three particulars may be 
noted: his inexplicable slumber, his characteristic 
presumption, and his unnecessary alarm. 

It seems that during most of this vision all of the 
disciples were afflicted with a most unfortunate and 
irresistible drowsiness. 

Really, such an occurrence demands explanation, 
which is not furnished, and an apology, which is not 
given. Offer all the charitable excuse we can — say 
this was near dawn, and they had been awake 
during the night — say they were completely ex- 
hausted with a continuous solicitude — say they were 
physically worn out with daily journeying — there yet 
remains the fact that these same favored three per- 
sons slept in the same way during the agony in 
Gethsemane. Whether Jesus suffered or shone, it 
seemed alike nothing to them. 

What a pitiful comment this makes on poor weak 
human nature. Compare Moses and Elijah here, at 
the moment when they came to the summit of the 
mountain, with these fishermen whom they met. 
The celestial beings are all alive with activity, fairly 
palpitating in their eager vitality ; the earthly wit- 
nesses are dull and heavy, lying in slumberous length 
upon the sward ! How much these disciples lost 
can never be known. The transfiguration was full 
in progress when they had the first glimpses of it. 
How long had those heavenly visitants been there ? 



262 SIMON PETER : 

How did they arrive ? Did Elijah journey back to 
the earth with the same pageantry as he left it? 
Was that chariot of fire in the sky again, and the 
whirlwind around it ? Is it possible that Michael 
brought back the body of Moses, for which, as Jude 
somewhat obscurely tells us, he contended with 
Satan ? The imagination runs riot when it conjec- 
tures what perhaps Peter might have seen, if only he 
had been wakeful from the start. 

Sleep is always a risk and a peril. It proves 
weakness. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers 
nor sleeps. The enemy sowed tares while the 
husbandman slept. The bridegroom came and hur- 
ried by, while those foolish virgins were asleep. 
Sisera lost his life when Jael found his head on a 
pillow. But spiritual drowsiness evidences more 
than mere weakness ; it intimates guilt. The Bride 
in the Canticle slept, and the Spouse forsook her. 

Just here the language becomes singularly graphic. 
These bewildered men appear to have been stirred 
by such excitement around them, and at last are 
thoroughly aroused to look and to listen. A swift 
moment only seems to have been granted ; for even 
as they are alertly gazing on the scene, the group is 
breaking up. Moses is withdrawing, and Elijah is 
on the wings of the whirlwind again. 

" And it came to pass as they departed from him, 
Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be 
here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for 
Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not 
knowing what he said." 



"WITH HIM IN THE HOLY MOUNT." 263 

It is a comfort to find that when Simon was waked 
up, he was thoroughly waked, and was entering into 
the spirit of the majestic vision with intense enthusi- 
asm of delight. He heard their blessed converse, 
and saw their wonderful presence, and his heart was 
full. The proposal he made was that three tents should 
be erected,- and Elijah and Moses should arrange to 
abide there, and indeed all that choice company 
should simply remain on the mountain. This sug- 
gestion was surely presumptuous in the highest ex- 
treme. For it involved the same folly of misconcep- 
tion for which Peter was rebuked. 

It is remarkable that this disciple, who was never 
specially abashed, did not dare address any one ex- 
cept Jesus on this occasion. It was characteristic of 
Peter to think he must say something upon the 
point; but he appears to have had a laudable reluc- 
tance to put questions to those who, as he had every 
reason to believe, had come from the dead. But we 
must observe what a singular blending there is in his 
mind of ecstatic experience with mere matter of 
fact. A pure unselfishness, at any rate a fresh self- 
forgetfulncss, shines out in his proposition. He was 
quietly satisfied to remain out in such welcome com- 
pany night and day. John and James and himself 
desired no cover. But a vague thought of exposure 
and discomfort in the surroundings was mingled 
with this offer of shelter, as he recollected how un- 
protected and unprovided for they were on the hill. 

Now we do not exhaust the register of Simon's 

presumption in merely rehearsing the history of these 
12 



264 SIMON PETER : 

suggestions concerning Jesus and the two celestial 
visitants. He made also a fresh suggestion concern- 
ing himself and the other two disciples who were 
with him. He proposed to remain where he was, 
because he was perfectly happy in such wonderful 
companionship. He exclaimed : " It is good for us 
to be here !" He wanted to build some tabernacles 
and stay there on the mountain indefinitely. " Good 
for us :" yes, but what for the world of woe and toil 
and tears all around them ? Oh, no ! there was 
stern work yet to be done before permanent home 
could be found with the prophets and the witnesses 
of old. When luxury of emotional enjoyment inter- 
feres with necessary toil, it becomes no more than 
religious dissipation. 

There is admonition in the old monkish tale. A 
recluse had made it his prayer that he might see 
Jesus in person. The vision came: the sight filled 
his room, and flooded the entire space with luminous 
shining. He fell on his knees. At that instant the 
clock tolled for noon and he must go forth to feed 
the paupers as usual at the gate. Should he leave 
the chamber and lose the spectacle ? He went and 
did his duty, and came back in tears, wondering 
whether he should ever dare to pray again, and 
whether his vision would ever return. He was com- 
forted and amazed, as he entered his cell, to find the 
great Light waiting for him yet : — 

" Nay, wonder not !" the Vision said : 
" Because thou wentest forth, I stayed. 
Hadst thou remained to enjoy the sight, 
I would have taken instant, flight !" 



"WITH HIM IN THE HOLY MOUNT." 265 

It becomes us also to note carefully here the un- 
necessary fright of these three disciples, before we 
forsake the exposition altogether. The moment 
Simon's proposal had been made there came a de- 
cided manifestation from heaven itself : "While he 
thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed 
them : and they feared as they entered into the 
cloud." Forth from this cloud, as we have seen al- 
ready, came a great Voice, attesting the divine 
pleasure: "And when the disciples heard it, they 
fell on their face, and were sore afraid." 

It is plain that these men were frightened at the 
oncoming of that tremendous arch and canopy of 
shadow. The phraseology is perhaps obscure, but 
there is hardly room for doubting that the words 
refer to the entering in of Moses and Elias, not of 
James and John and Peter. They (these disciples) 
feared, as they (the heavenly visitants) entered into 
the cloud. Possibly they all were for a single in- 
stant enveloped together. The men trembled at the 
first. The simple record reads that they feared as 
they entered into the cloud, but not after they had 
entered in. No doubt they felt the mysterious 
swooping down upon them of this solemn darkness, 
which was lit through all its thickness — a cloud that 
dazzled while it blinded. 

In the rush of excited feeling. they flung their 
faces on the sward. This was the moment for inter- 
position ; our Lord drew near at once : " And Jesus 
came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not 
afraid. And suddenly, when they had looked round 



266 SIMON PETER : 

about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only 
with themselves." 

Is not this just the rule of Christian experience? 
Are none of us rebuked by this story ? Do we not 
undergo needless alarm as some cloud of bereave- 
ment or trouble spreads its folds over us ? A shock 
at the entering in, but what right afterwards ? 
Enter, foreboding doom ; but looking up, find Jesus ! 
Dare darkness for one moment, then behold a 
Transfiguration ! 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

FISHING TO PAY TRIBUTE. 

The reception which on this occasion our Lord 
with his disciples meets on entering Capernaum is 
very striking from the absence of all display. No 
crowds come forth into the street for gifts of heal- 
ing or with greetings of peace. A change has 
passed upon the history. Capernaum has evidently 
been growing harder. Spite must have been stir- 
ring up strife. Small malignities are coming to the 
surface. Townspeople and neighbors are getting 
jealous. 

For example : no sooner was Simon settled at 
home again than he began to be harassed in regard 
to his money matters. Being the ostensible house- 
holder, he appears to have been reckoned as respon- 
sible for all the members of his family. And one 
day he found himself somewhat abruptly challenged 
with the implication that Jesus was neglecting the 
dues of the temple in a very mean sort of way : 
" They that received tribute-money came to Peter 
and said, Doth not your master pay tribute ?" 

The rendering in our version is a little unfortu- 
nate here in the use of the word "tribute." It 
seems to connect this incident with that other in 
Jesus' history in which some superscription of 
Caesar's image upon a coin plays a part in the argu- 
ment. But this was not a civil impost at all. It 



268 SIMON PETER: 

had nothing to do with the imperial government, 
but was one of the old theocratic payments of the 
Israelite nation, plating back to the times of the Ex- 
odus. It will be of interest that we rehearse the 
ancient record concerning it : 

" And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When 
thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, ac- 
cording to those that are numbered of them, then 
shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto 
the Lord, when thou numberest them ; that there 
be no plague among them, when thou numberest 
them. This they shall give, every one that passeth 
over unto them that are numbered, half a shekel 
after the shekel of the sanctuary : (the shekel is 
twenty gerahs :) half a shekel for an offering to the 
Lord. Every one that passeth over unto them that 
are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, 
shall give the offering of the Lord. The rich shall 
not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than 
the half shekel, when they give the offering of the 
Lord, to make atonement for your souls. And thou 
shalt take the atonement money from the children 
of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the 
tent of meeting; that it may be a memorial for the 
children of Israel before the Lord, to make atone- 
ment for your souls." 

So we see that these people who made such de- 
mand upon Simon were not Roman tax-gatherers, 
but only ordinary collectors of this Jewish contri- 
bution for religious services. Even Augustine 
glides into the singular mistake of connecting this 



FISHING TO PAY TRIBUTE. 269 

incident with the precept, " Render tribute to whom 
tribute is due." 

The Rabbins give us some particulars concerning 
this toll as customs had finally settled it. It was to 
be paid over the whole world by every Israelite who 
had reached the age of twenty years. Its purpose 
was to meet the running expenses of the temple 
worship, and it was used in purchasing incense, 
show-bread, wood for the ordinary fires of morning 
and evening sacrifices, red-heifers, scapegoats, and 
all the miscellaneous need for the services. Such 
an amount — about thirty cents of our money to each 
man — would yearly produce extraordinary incomes 
in the aggregate; and these were generally con- 
veyed to Jerusalem by persons standing in great 
honor in the countries where they were levied. The 
taxes were payable each twelvemonth, about the 
time of thepassover; but in individual cases they 
often ran behindhand. It is said that the official re- 
ceivers were accustomed to set two chests before 
them, one to hold contributions for the current year, 
the other to take in the arrearages of years that 
were past. For there was no power beyond ortho- 
dox public sentiment to compel payment of this 
atonement-money to the collectors from any persons 
who neglected or refused it. That poor nation knew 
that generosity then was a voluntary virtue. 

But about the time of this occurrence, as we learn 
from one of the Jewish annalists, there had been a 
fierce and famous controversy between the Pharisees 
and Sadducees upon this point. The disputatious 



270 SIMON PETER: 

Pharisees claimed that the regular rendering of this 
theocratic half-shekel impost should be made com- 
pulsory ; but the easy-going Sadducees denied all 
authority for enforcing it, and pressed the consider- 
ation that all contributions for God's service were 
absolutely good for nothing unless they were en- 
tirely free-will. 

And the record runs that the Pharisees had car- 
ried the day in the dispute. So the question which 
Capernaum people put to Simon was equivalent to 
the inquiry whether Jesus proposed to take sides 
with the Sadducees, and thus decline the payment 
altogether; for it is assumed in their words that our 
Lord was behindhand already. 

One thing is very noticeable here. Eminent 
teachers of their law, as well as priests, it had al- 
ways been owned, were exempted from this impo- 
sition. Hitherto the inhabitants of that privileged 
town had not denied to Jesus even the most ele- 
vated recognition. There was more than one day 
in Capernaum's history when at Simon's hospitable 
door " all the city was gathered together." No 
honor the people could render was deemed too good 
for this young and miracle-working rabbi. It was 
one glad cry among them, as they were amazed at 
his deeds and at his doctrines alike : " We never saw 
it on this fashion." In his absence the popular wind 
of fame had shifted into another quarter. Capernaum, 
exalted to heaven, was now getting ready to be cast 
down into hell. The coarse minds thought the day 
had arrived now for this so-called prophet to begin 



FISHING TO PAY TRIBUTE. 27 1 

to settle his rates. Questions of contribution admit 
of no favor. The only remnant of reverence we can 
detect is found in the fact that they put the question 
to Simon instead of Jesus. For this shows that 
there were some who retained a somewhat salutary 
awe of our Lord still. 

Simon answers with his usual promptness : " He 
saith, Yes." He accepts without any objection the 
implication that he was a servant, and Jesus was his 
master : " Doth not your master pay the double- 
drachma ?" Without an instant's hesitation, he re- 
plies, as if repelling an insinuation : " Of course he 
does." 

We are compelled to acknowledge that this dis- 
ciple made a mistake in thus pledging Jesus to any 
Jewish observance without previously consulting 
him ; but no one can have the heart to censure an 
answer so honest, when he remembers the motive 
which prompted this amiable haste. Most admir- 
able is Peter's solicitude lest the name of his Lord 
should be reproached. The church, even in our 
time of conspicuous coldness, would stand better 
before the world if each of us were only equally 
jealous with a great jealousy for the fame of the 
cause and the kingdom of the risen Redeemer. 

Still, it seems probable that this friend of Jesus 

afterwards had his doubts about the prudence of 

the rejoinder he had made. A misgiving may even 

have arisen, in the narrowness of their finances, as to 

the possible payment of such a sum ; but more 

likely he grew embarrassed with the fear that he 
12* 



2/2 SIMON PETER: 

might have compromised his great Master's position. 
Just at this point we are interested to discover a fine 
illustrative proof of Jesus' minute omniscience ; for, 
as Simon entered, he instantly showed by com- 
mencing the conversation that he was acquainted 
with all that had passed in the street. " And when 
he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, 
saying, What thinkest thou, Simon ? of whom do 
the kings of the earth take custom or tribute ? of 
their own children, or of strangers ?" 

Martin Luther, in some very interesting com- 
ments upon this interview, calls attention to the 
frank and friendly way in which Jesus administered 
the needed corrective to his hasty host. It puts 
before our imaginations the fine terms of pleasant 
familiarity on which they stood. This word "pre- 
vented " in our version means only anticipated; 
Simon was going to speak, but Jesus spoke before a 
word had fallen from him. Then the conversation 
runs easily on. 

" Do monarchs at the head of human govern- 
ments collect their customs on imports, or their 
tributes for privileges, from the members of the 
royal family, or from other people ?" Peter saith 
unto him, " Of strangers." " Then are the children 
free," Jesus replies to him. 

To this statement the disciple had only one 
answer to return. Kings never tax their sons for 
ordinary revenues. Then Jesus passed the illus- 
tration over instantly to the case in hand: "I am a 
son of the King of kings; the toll which these col- 



FISHING TO PAY TRIBUTE. 273 

lectors are demanding is asked for God's sake as 
earthly tributes are asked for princes' sake ; I, there- 
fore, am not bound to pay it; children — certainly, 
royal children — are free !" 

There is a sense in which our Lord includes his 
disciples in these statements likewise ; for he uses 
" children " in the plural number, although we are 
told again and again Christ was the " only begotten 
Son " of the Highest. Moreover, he proceeds at 
once to a plan which shall make provision on the 
same basis for Simon as for himself, as if both were 
alike free. So he avows the grand principle that 
among Christians all gospel privileges should be 
paid for voluntarily, and never of constraint. " Libcri 
sunt liberie 

There can be no reason for mistaking our lesson 
in this declaration. It is aimed directly against all 
systems of union between Church and State which 
force the believing people to sustain the institutions 
of religion by legal constraint. All church-rates 
necessary for support of worship should be entirely 
free-will. 

So Simon was corrected at once, and must have 
seen in one instant flash of discovery that he had 
gone too far in committing Jesus to pay the Phari- 
sees' tax. Still, it gives us surprise now to find such 
an emphatic denial of this imposition followed, as it 
is in the story, by an acquiescence immediate and 
unreserved. 

A complete reversal of decision is announced 
though based upon an entirely new consideration. 



274 SIMON PETER : 

Jesus says he judges it best to start no scandal; 
the matter is not of sufficient importance to insist 
upon ; he does not propose to make a stand on his 
rights with any undue stress. He intimates, how- 
ever, that Simon's toll shall be paid as well as his 
own; but not because of an inherent justice in the 
demand — only because of the expediency of compli- 
ance. He desires to propitiate the feelings of the 
populace, and not needlessly to arouse animosity or 
provoke prejudice. Then he turns to this fisherman, 
rapidly unfolding his project: ''Notwithstanding, 
lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and 
cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh 
up ; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou 
shalt find a piece of money; that take, and give unto 
them for me and thee." 

Now we ought to notice the exquisite delicacy 
with which this only true Son of God, the Lord of 
Glory, manages the admission, so remarkable in its 
condescension, that all Christians are to be summar- 
ily reckoned with himself in this spiritual freedom 
as children, and yet preserves his own majesty from 
too close a familiarity. He does not say, " Give 
them this money for us .•" but he says, " Give them 
for me — and thee." While he counts them as one 
with him in the freedom, he does not admit that 
they are equal with him in the sonship ; he makes 
them remember that there is a distinction. 

And, as if to render that distinction the more evi- 
dent, this divine Master proceeds to work a miracle 
in the line of Simon's ancient profession. Which 



FISHING TO PAY TRIBUTE. 2?$ 

miracle is remarkable for two particulars : it is the 
only one mentioned in the New Testament which 
Christ was known to work for his own benefit ; and 
it is the only one -which is left without a record of 
its accomplishment — being given to us simply as a 
command, with its details unindicated and undc- 
scribed. 

Christ bids his disciple go out on the lake, not 
with a seine but a hook, and when the first fish 
should come up out of the deep water he should 
open its mouth, and there he would discover a Ro- 
man coin of the exact value of those two half-shek- 
els which were now claimed by the Capernaum 
people as clue to the temple collectors. 

It seems hardly worth while to dwell upon the ab- 
surd attempts which have been made to rationalize 
away this part of the inspired record. It is abrupt- 
ly denied by some that any miracle was actually 
wrought after all. And indeed, so much as this is 
true : in not another instance of our Lord's history 
do we find him issuing such a command with no 
subsequent account of the result. But surely, a con- 
versation like this would have reached a most lame 
and impotent conclusion if everything ended where 
the chapter leaves it. With the infinite God, how- 
ever, we may say to command is to perform. 

Then, too, the sneer of Paulus that miracles must 
have cheapened if Jesus would work one for half-a- 
crown, will have to be patiently laid alongside of the 
puerile conjecture that what was proposed and what 
is meant is this— Simon must go and catch the fish, 



276 SIMON PETER: 

and then open his own mouth ; that is, he must cry 
the fish for public sale in the market and so earn the 
shekel — a most extraordinary price, by the way, in 
those times for any fish that could be captured and 
pulled in with a hook. So with the cavil of another 
anxious critic, who says that Jesus was simply play- 
ful and sarcastic with his heedless disciple, and 
intended to admonish him in a pleasant and even jo- 
cose manner that he had run before he was sent : 

" As you have committed me with a blunder, you 
might as well go now and relieve me with a wonder. 
You did a presumptuous thing easily ; let us see 
you try your hand at one that is impossible ! " 

In the midst of all this nonsense the only com- 
ment that can be treated seriously is this — fishes do 
often swallow bright articles, and a silver coin was 
just about the size and the brilliance to prove at- 
tractive near the shore of the lake. It is not easy 
to see where any harm would come from admitting 
this conjecture, if a disturbed heart should deem it 
any better than the supposition that Christ created 
the money where it was found. Then the miracle, 
as it stands, would consist in the six particulars 
which the pious Bengel enumerates: " I. That 
something shall be caught — 2. And that quickly — 
3. There shall be money in a fish — 4. And that 
found in the fish's mouth — 5. The sum shall be just 
what is needed — 6. And that it shall be a Roman 
coin made out of silver." 

From this point in the story everything is now left 
to the imagination of each devout reader. Simon had 



FISHING TO PAY TRIBUTE. 2/7 

already been with Jesus too long to distrust his di- 
vine power in an exigency like this. There must 
have been something exceedingly impressive in the 
quick acquiescence of his faith. One would like to 
witness such a scene from the first preparation to the 
final result. Very singular must have been the feel- 
ing of Simon Peter on his way to the beach alone, 
taking some old rod and line that knew his hand the 
best, and pushing off in some boat which had more 
than once felt the spring from his oars in the days 
gone by. Out on the placid water at last, he must 
have experienced a solemn sense of awe as he flung 
his glance across the surface of that sea, conscious 
that somewhere in its serene depth there must be 
one inarticulate creature working its way towards 
his hook in unconcerned obedience to divine com- 
mand. 

Over went the line, and the first cast brought the 
anticipated prey. Eager and trembling Simon's 
hands must have been, in the excited instant when 
he forced open the jaws to search for the promised 
piece .of silver. With what inexpressible emotion 
would this man remove that glittering coin — bearing 
its quaint image of the helmeted head on its surface, 
and the old rude letters on the obverse. It does not 
appear as if there could be a more appropriate ex- 
clamation for him to make than that which he had 
had occasion with the others of his astonished friends 
to utter once before, when on this same sheet of 
water : " What manner of man is this, that even the 
sea obeys him !•" 



2/S SIMON PETER: 

Here is afforded one of the finest illustrations con- 
ceivable of the Lord's supremacy. He submitted to 
the imposed taxes of the Pharisees in order to teach 
to all ages the lesson that Christian liberty should 
sometimes be limited by a regard for the good of 
irreligious men around us: " Lest we should offend 
them." But this he did in such a way as to preserve 
his majesty unsullied. He condescended to touch a 
human toll, but his fingers were clothed with om- 
nipotence when they came in contact with the silver 
coin. 

Simon knew what fishing in Lake Gennesaret 
meant; and we maybe sure he had learned at the 
last that Jesus was indeed what even his own words 
at Caesarea Philippi had admitted him to be — what 
a wide Christendom has confessed since — " the Son 
of the living God." 

Then, too, this incident affords a fine example of 
our Lord's omnipotent sway in the kingdom of na- 
ture even to its uttermost limits. For the time being, 
the spoken word of this King of the kingdom of 
truth was hidden in the mouth of an uncaught fish. 
The stability of the Messiahship rested upon the 
fickle movements of this most agile and most uncer- 
tain of all the creatures of God. Just a half-mile of 
swimming less or more in the twelve miles length 
of that inland sea would have put eternal veracity 
in peril. An hour earlier or later — one fish more 
expeditious in arriving at this hook than another — 
a slight mistake in the mere mechanical knack of 
angling — would have sent Simon Peter home to 



FISHING TO PAY TRIBUTE. 279 

Capernaum a disappointed, doubting man. Talk to 
him about fishing to pay tribute — let critics tell him 
that these creatures often swallow bright things — 
and most likely in his business-like way he would 
answer : 

" Very well ; but this was the first one of that kind 
I myself ever caught which did it. Perhaps some 
other fisherman here in Galilee would like to go out 
and do the same thing over now !" 

To one who, in despite of all its confusions, 
thoroughly understands it, what an orderly universe 
this of ours must always appear to be ! A most 
graphic picture of the subordination of the races and 
species is that which here rises upon our imagina- 
tions. A fish — one poor little fish — for a moment, 
stands in the cycle of eternal history. It surrenders 
its life on an issue between Pharisees and Sadducces 
about temple-taxes ! Round and round in the famil- 
iar waters of the lake it may have gone a myriad of 
times before this ; never, however, until now would 
any special interest of the kingdom of heaven depend 
upon the punctual accuracy of its arrival at the side 
of Simon's boat : to-day it must come up exactly ! 

Such an incident is calculated to hold the popular 
mind firmly through all the ages. Even to this day in 
the East men catch a sort of prey which they call 
" Saint Peter's fish " — the dore, taking its name 
from the French word which means worshipped — 
bearing like the haddock, just under its gills, the 
dark marks (so the villagers fable) of the apostle's 
thumb and finger as he was supposed to grasp it 



280 SIMON PETER : 

roughly in order to extract the silver coin. This is 
of course only a folly of superstition ; but it evid- 
ences that the miracle has fastened itself in the notice 
of the common people. 

Nor is this attribute of omnipotence alone exhib- 
ited here; omniscience also is suggested. We have 
already remarked that Christ seems to have known 
all that was passing in the street while Simon and 
the neighbors were holding their conversation. 
And now we see that the lofty and the lowly are to- 
gether under the same divine observation. The min- 
now in the lake, and the apostle in the town, alike 
are w r ithin the same reach of a constant survey. In 
this very moment when Jesus was surprising Simon 
with the disclosure that he perceived his thoughts, 
he was sweeping the hand of his divinity among the 
far-off waters of that Capernaum fishing-ground 
with his beckoning gesture for one special finny 
creature he was acquainted with to come swiftly up 
now with the vaster surprise of a miracle in its 
mouth. We never know exactly whose history our 
lives might be writing, nor exactly what life of man 
or fish is writing ours! 

Perhaps it is well to dismiss this part of the record 
with an early recognition of its main instruction. 

Our Lord must have had one explicit purpose in 
his action on this occasion. And his example bears 
with great force upon the doctrine of Christian ex- 
pediency. The structure of the question put to 
Simon Peter appears weak, querulous, even timid. 
These Jewish collectors do not exhibit a temper like 



FISHING TO TAY TRIBUTE. 28 1 

that of a Roman publican rudely demanding tribute. 
If Jesus had refused to pay the money, they had no 
pressure to bring to bear. They could only call 
him a recreant Israelite. But our Saviour wrought 
this miracle lest even a toll-gatherer should carp at 
the free gospel he came to proclaim. It was lawful 
for him to decline the tax ; but he did not deem it 
expedient to do so. 

Thus we reach the principle. He enunciated the 
same when he came to Jordan to be baptized: "Thus 
it becometh us to fufil all righteousness." This half- 
shekel was called " an atonement money for sin ; " 
and though he had no sin, he paid the ransom for 
his undefiled soul like one of the sinners he came to 
redeem. For he desired to show to the ages that he 
never used his liberty, nor suffered his followers to 
use theirs, "for a cloak of maliciousness." 

So our lesson is simple. We must not let our 
"good be evil spoken of" by reason of supercilious- 
ness in disregard of others' prejudices. Better for 
us to suffer inconvenience and humiliation than 
wound one for whom it is possible Christ may have 
died. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 

In the company of his Lord, Simon Peter had 
just now tediously come across the country, down 
from northern Palestine, to his established home 
beside the sea of Tiberias. From one suggestive 
expression employed by the evangelist Mark, who 
alone uses it, we infer that this disciple's mind had 
been very unpleasantly arrested by an awkward 
tameness and seclusion in the journey back from 
Caesarea Philippi. While Jesus was passing through 
that region, we are told he "would not that any man 
should know it." This Simon Peter evidently dis- 
relished. 

Moreover, our Lord occupied the time in con- 
versation upon themes especially distasteful to some 
of those who followed him. For he openly crossed 
their hopes. He told them all, in a way which to 
Simon Peter at least seemed unnecessarily melan- 
choly, that the Son of Man must suffer and be 
rejected, must be delivered up and killed, and this 
before many days should pass. 

This disciple never did like such pensive inter- 
views in private life. He preferred the crowds and 
the excitement when the common people stirred in 
the villages at their arrivals or came forth to meet 
them in the roads, thus rendering their ordinary tours 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 283 

across the country frequently a sort of pageant. 
Such a solemn traverse, with only lonely revelations 
of coming disaster for a meditation, most likely ex- 
asperated Peter, and reminded him of the rebuke he 
had received on the occasion of his chiding Jesus for 
what he considered undue depression. We can im- 
agine that he was quite glad to find himself once 
more among the curious fishmongers and the 
admiring gossips of Capernaum. Not even the 
wonderful disclosures of that scene on the transfigur- 
ation mountain seem to have been sufficient to raise 
his unusual heaviness of spirits; he came home half 
discouraged. 

But even here he received a new check. His 
townsmen gave his company a far cooler reception 
than he expected. This disturbed his mind with addi- 
tional annoyances. There can be suggested no reason 
for discrediting the generally-entertained belief con- 
cerning this period in Christ's life; it is assumed as 
true that he was accustomed, whenever he lingered 
in the vicinity, to share the accommodations of Peter 
in the city and remain under his roof. The miracle 
of healing which had been wrought upon his wife's 
mother, when she was recovered from her fever, 
would surely render Jesus a welcome guest. The 
gratitude of both women would make it easy for 
them to obey an injunction which came later on: 
"Use hospitality without grudging;" for they would 
cherish a companionship that saved life. 

But something must have happened to sour 
Simon's temper more and more; for his questions 



284 SIMON PETER : 

grow abrupt, and show the uneasy workings of an 
aroused and unamiable spirit. For example, he 
came one day to Jesus and asked with frankest 
directness: "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin 
against me, and I forgive him ? till seven times ?" 
Jesus saith unto him, " I say not unto thee, Until 
seven times; but, Until seventy times seven." 

He was thoroughly provoked. His meaning in 
pressing such inquiries is unmistakable. He could 
not get over the state of hurt feeling into which the 
demand for the tribute-money from Jesus had thrown 
him. He petulantly demands what shall be under- 
stood as the limit of forbearance with such people 
for a truly godly man in his times of excessive exas- 
peration. "About how much of this sort of thing 
are Christian men expected ordinarily to stand ?" 
Jesus replied to him out of the depth of a novel and 
far-reaching principle, overthrowing all the settled 
past reckoning of the ages in which Moses' law had 
prevailed. 

It becomes vital to our purposes of present study 
that we see plainly the mood of mind out of which 
Simon's suggestion of "seven times" as a measure 
of endurance could go. But we should make a vast 
mistake if we simply discharge the meaning of his 
question upon a flitting flash of wrath which for a 
passionate hour provoked him. We shall appreciate 
both the inquiry and its answer better if we keep in 
memory the temper of the times in which all these 
men had been reared. One word of description will 
put before us the principle of the dispensation out 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 285 

from which the question of this excited disciple rose. 
Men had for almost sixteen centuries been living 
under the law of retaliation. Pay off your enemy in 
kind — this had been an old and recognized rule for 
the whole generations past since a great prophet- 
leader had written the Pentateuch ; and this Israel 
had accepted as fixed for fifteen hundred years 
before this simple-minded fisherman Simon Peter 
had been born. Moses had left on record these 
significant and specific enactments: "Thou shalt 
give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand 
for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound 
for wound, stripe for stripe." "And thine eye shall 
not pity ; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth 
for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." 

This is what has been termed the u lex talionis." 
And it certainly has had a vast array of natural ad- 
vantages to it, or the world would never have used 
it so much. It is so customary lately to deride the 
ancient system of Moses, that a fair review of the 
great benefits it brought, the utilities it exhibited, 
and the services it rendered, might well be in order 
now and then. The law of retaliation was singularly 
helpful and effective ; it is the easiest in application 
known to men. 

I. For example, it met all peoples' notion of a 
swift convenience. It seemed to require no expen- 
sive and cumbersome machinery of court routine, as 
would every other system of administration of jus- 
tice. For it constituted every man his own judge, 
jury, and sheriff. He took his case instantly in hand, 



286 SIMON PETER! 

without troubling his neighbors to waste time with 
tribunals. 

2. Then again, it met all men's considerations of 
equity. It looked eminently fair and just. A com- 
plete balance was instantly struck. The requital it 
proposed was the same in kind and measure. A 
blinded man put a bandage over his own eye as he 
started out vigorously with a beam in his hand to 
put squarely into his antagonist's eye. A limping 
traveler smote an exposed sinew on the limb of the 
one who had wounded him, and as they both 
dragged themselves around afterwards the neigh- 
bors perceived that the first man had a maimed sort 
of comfort. 

3. It met all men's ideas of necessary retribution. 
Go where we will, we shall find the same impress of 
conviction in the human heart — wrong merits judg- 
ment; the criminal ought in no instance to escape 
free from the legitimate consequences of any act of 
violence he may have committed ; be it what it may, he 
should beforced to suffer the penalty due to the clime. 

For such reasons the law of retaliation has natur- 
ally become the recognized primary law for all 
nations and communities when first compacted into 
organized society. It has sometimes been rough in 
its application, but the instincts of mankind at large 
have turned to it until it could be supplanted by 
something milder, safer, and better. For it will be 
sure to show its disadvantages almost immediately. 
Sober second thought always discovers inevitable 
misfortunes in its last results. 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 287 

I. To begin with, it perpetuated wrong, instead 
of relieving it. Everybody knows how some clans 
and tribes in history have taken up each other's 
quarrels. He who had lost a relation in war or by 
assassination felt it to be his duty, and a harsh pub- 
lic sentiment held him up to it, to pursue the family 
of the destroyer through the generations. That, 
however, did not help anything ; it simply kept the 
whole community in a state of chronic fight and 
restless entanglements. 

2. It excited malevolence in all hearts. Increas- 
ing bad passions, it perverted vengeance into re- 
venge. There is a difference world-wide between 
this hot violence of an avenger of blood and the 
cool, collected, and calm infliction of a recognized 
penalty, under a majestic sanction of social authority, 
by a responsible officer of the law. A sheriff may 
shudder, and a judge may weep, and the discipline 
may render each more charitable to his fellow-men. 
But in times of retaliation the feuds openly grew 
fiercer; men in pursuit of blood became savage and 
abased themselves to the level of the most brutal of 
beasts. 

3. It proved unfair in each administration. The 
man who is injured is the poorest sort of a judge to 
decide concerning the amount of his own wrong. Of 
course, he is the likeliest individual in the world to 
err in the register of reprisal. Life for life — yes ; 
but one life is worth more than another under cer- 
tain circumstances. An eye is not always an eye in 
each and every case alike ; suppose a man has only 
5 3 



2 8S SIMON PETER : 

one eye left ! Moreover, I admit I am under preju- 
dice somewhat as to my particular teeth and hands. 
To me they seem inevitably more valuable than 
yours. Thus always we may unconsciously over- 
estimate our neighbor's trespasses, and underrate his 
rights. False standards are set up. Personal feel- 
ing blinds our judgment. We claim an unjust meas- 
ure when we appear to claim only what we lost. 

4. It left out of hope and reach all reconciliation 
to be effected between the belligerent parties. Re- 
taliation allows no provision for the reclamation of an 
offender; it shows never a way for the restitution of 
the wrong. It acts to render the whole matter worse 
in every aspect. Standing armies, picket fences, 
and spring-guns all grow out of it. For perpetual 
investment and regular siege becomes the rule of 
social life ; the community remains rude, unsettled, 
and never seems tranquil enough to be safe. Peace- 
able people suffer from others' fights. 

5. Most of all, it used up material with uttermost 
recklessness of destruction. It wasted valuable men, 
and ruinously exhausted the products of human 
labor. To maim a workingman was bad enough ; 
but to go and maim another was the foolishest and 
most pitiful sort of way to clear up the loss. Burn- 
ing one dwelling because another had been burnt, 
reckoned two less homes in the shelter of which 
peace might dwell with plenty. To make one seeing 
man sightless would not make another sightless man 
see. Each loss of eyes, teeth, and hands was just 
doubled on every community. Putting a new beg- 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 289 

gar down by the side of old Bartimaeus, son of Tim- 
aeus, only rendered it the worse for Jericho. 

This, then, was the bearing of all that state of 
things out from under which Simon Peter put the 
question in the verse that has been quoted. The 
answer our Lord gave him in return was at once 
radical and revolutionary. 

" Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for 
an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, 
That ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite 
thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." 

What could he have desired to know further, 
when he challenged Jesus as he did in his inquiry 
concerning the exact number of times he was to for- 
give before he took vengeance ? What was his 
purpose in suggesting seven pardons as the limit ? 

To forgive an injury signifies to restore the per- 
son who has inflicted it to terms of reconciliation. 
Simon found out that in such an act on his part 
there was demanded a difficult magnanimity. Those 
Capernaum people were trying him seriously. Was 
there to be no end to their smiting his cheek, and to 
his turning the other cheek for them to do it again ! 

The Jews were accustomed to say, Bear with thine 
enemy three times, and then duty is done. It is 
fair to admit that Peter here goes beyond his 
national traditions. Three was considered a sacred 
number, but seven was more sacred still. This 
decent disciple supposes that seven times would be 
satisfactory even to Christ. Should he have to for- 
give oftener than that ? 



290 SIMON TETER : 

Remember there never had been any forgiveness 
inculcated before the time of Christ. If any instances 
seem on record in the Old Testament, they may 
easily be explained upon some other principle than 
what is religious. For example, the well remem- 
bered passage in the Book of Proverbs is the only 
verse which can be quoted legitimately: " If thine 
enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he 
be thirsty, give him water to drink : for thou shalt 
heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall 
reward thee." And it is likely that this refers to noth- 
ing more than mere ingenious policy; you will defeat 
enemies more quickly if you demoralize them with 
embarrassing kindness when they expect violence. 
So as we read that David did not cut off the head of 
a man like King Saul, but cut off the skirts of his 
garments instead, we need not be pressed with the 
proof of his superiority in the highest reaches of 
Christian life, though we may admire his self-con- 
trol. For we are perplexed enough to find a prayer 
in David's psalm like this, without being compelled 
all at once to admit his supreme excellence above 
his times : 

"Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou 
hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; 
thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Break 
their teeth, O God, in their mouth : break out the 
great teeth of the young lions, O Lord. Let them 
melt away as waters which run continually : when 
he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be 
as cut in pieces." 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 291 

Such expressions as these in his devotions show 
that after all some explanation of David's reserve in 
attacking - the monarch, from whom he had received 
so much abuse and treachery, must be offered be- 
sides what would be found in a high-minded and 
magnanimous sense of forgiveness of injury. Perhaps 
he was afraid of exasperating the people at large. 
Perhaps he was moved by some sort of reverent 
loyalty towards the person of the Lord's anointed. 
For this is all there could be under such a dispensa- 
tion. The apostle quotes this passage as if he knew 
it had as yet never been understood. The New 
Testament spirit is not to be discovered in the Old 
Testament teachings. Men were expected to blust- 
er, and complain, and resist, and defend themselves. 

Now came a fresh revelation of revolutionary doc- 
trine in the life and sermons of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. We must assume that Simon Peter remem- 
bered the lessons he had received earlier in his Mas- 
ter's ministry ; but perhaps he never did thoroughly 
appreciate their reach. He was now groping around 
after some universal principle of application which 
would admit of a little easier play of the system under 
which he had been educated. For all that law of 
retaliation Jesus had substituted a new law of love. 
There can be no denial of the fact that the spirit of 
a free; full, Christian forgiveness is truly the most 
delicate plant that is ever put in the hard soil of the 
human heart. A man has to rise above his natural 
passions in order to exercise the grace of pardon. 
Self-control of the highest character is needed in it. 



292 SIMON PETER : 

Simon Peter, for one, was not good at that. It was 
an unconcealed weakness of his to utter harsh words 
and often explode into tempestuous excitement. For- 
giveness claims a showing of good will and a real 
generosity towards the man who has just touched 
our temper and done us an injury. But Simon felt 
that those neighbors of his who had offended him 
had never had the right to be cool to him, and to 
come around dunning him publicly for the half- 
shekel tax*; this was an insult. 

How could an irascible, provoked man be expect- 
ed then — how can he be expected now — to relish 
calm, plain utterances, like those spoken long after- 
wards by the Apostle Paul? 

" Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and 
beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness 
of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one 
another, and forgiving one another, if any man have 
a quarrel against any : even as Christ forgave you, 
so also do ye." " Let all bitterness, and wrath, and 
anger, and clamor, and evil-speaking be put away 
from you, with all malice : and be ye kind one to 
another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even 
as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." 

Now, this being the spirit of the new dispensation, 
this being really an acknowledged thing in Simon 
Peter's experience, we need not suppose he was try- 
ing to get away altogether from it in application. 
The explanation of his words is found in the effort 
of his human ingenuity to draw a line of duty, up to 
which obedience could come, and then be quit of all 



THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 293 

cumbersome responsibility. The emphasis of his 
question falls on the enumeration suggested : How 
many times shall I have to forgive ? 

Just think how one of Simon's temperament would 
have rejoiced to find it settled that when a seventh 
offence had been reached, there it would be actually 
religious to say to the injurious fellow : " Now you 
have to take your turn ; you have exhausted your 
days of grace: do that thing only an eighth time, 
just once more now, and you will see what a muscu- 
lar believer will be indulged in doing J " 

It is really on record, in one of the old histories, 
that the rabbis of Simon's time rather encouraged 
people who were malevolently disposed to go on 
with a sort of heedlessness in their provocations 
(when they saw they unsuspiciously approached the 
prescribed limit of forbearance), as if they actually 
hoped there might be a fourth offence ; for it was 
an understood thing that all beyond three would 
count. It is possible that a man with a violent tem- 
per, like this fisherman Simon, would wait with ex- 
emplary patience through seven insults, provided he 
would rest assured that an eighth chance in his favor 
would leave him free to luxuriate in some satisfying 
requital, after the legal and prescribed forbearance 
was used up. 

But our Lord answered his disciple with a some- 
what startling extension of the bounds. Seven 
times ? Seventy times seven must be the limit of for- 
giveness, at the very least ! There is no need of 
supposing that exactness of figures was designed to 



294 SIMON PETER : 

be stated in these words. The four hundred and 
ninety times of forbearance, however, would cover 
the ground of most men's injuries. Christian for- 
bearance should reach as far as a wrong could be 
felt; revenge should never be in order. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

"AN HUNDRED-FOLD." 

At one point in the sacred history we meet the 
story of the young ruler who came to Jesus asking 
how he might inherit eternal life. 

This man refused to sell his possessions and give 
the price to the poor, and so he would not come after 
Christ and follow him. The secret of entire conse- 
cration lies in the recital, and the lesson is taught to 
all the disciples who stood looking on. The disap- 
pointed inquirer goes away, and the scene grows pic- 
turesque as we watch those followers of our Lord 
gazing sorrowfully after him as he disappears from 
historic mention and knowledge, vanishing from 
their sight. 

Simon Peter breaks the silence with his artless 
egotism, abruptly challenging attention to the better 
spirit he with the others had exhibited : " Lo, we 
have left all, and have followed thee." The state- 
ment he makes is not doubted or denied; he re- 
ceives a calm reply : " And Jesus answered and 
said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that 
hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake 
and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred-fold 
now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, 
and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecu- 
tions ; and in the world to come, eternal life." 
13* 



296 SIMON peter: 

We should like to know whether this general prin- 
ciple is true in Peter's case, and whether it is to be 
trusted as true always. There are at least three 
tests which men are accustomed to apply when they 
attempt to measure any one's sacrifices by his suc- 
cesses afterwards in life : wealth, talents, and fame. 
Is it worth while just here to judge these disciples 
by such methods of estimate ? 

Not a few of them had been fishermen; five came 
from one town, and had, as we have learned already, 
been engaged in the same occupation for a period of 
years ; and of them Simon Peter was certainly one. 
The first question we should ask is this : " What had 
they really ' left ? ' " 

Their home, for one thing; they belonged nowhere 
now, but were going around with Jesus, a rabbi who 
had not where to lay his head. They had given up 
their boats, nets, all their implements of trade, and 
what we should call in modern terms, the " good 
will of their business." They had broken with their 
former comrades; having become outcasts in the es- 
timate of those who still adhered to the religion 
which they had abjured. They had forsaken their 
old lives with all the associations of their childhood 
and middle-age. 

So we ask a second question: " Had they received 
anything as yet?" Hints that any reader of the 
gospels can easily recall, aid us in constructing a re- 
ply. None of them had reached the end of his ca- 
reer as yet, and so, of course, the whole facts can 
not be recorded at present. But it is not necessary 



"AN HUNDRED- FOLD." 297 

for us to think they were deplorably wretched and 
forlorn. There were times in which they appeared 
to be in some sort of way at their former tasks. 
They had boats of such size that they became " part- 
ners" in the management of them. These must 
have been larger and more costly than those they 
left on the beach. They had "hired servants " to 
aid them in the drudgery. There are other indica- 
tions especially of Simon Peter's prosperity later on. 
This man for one portion of his life resided at Caper- 
naum, and the house he owned must have been of 
some considerable size in. order to accommodate 
the throngs which were attracted to it by the mira- 
cles of the Messiah. John also had a house in Jeru- 
salem to which he conducted the Virgin Mother after 
the crucifixion, and where for fifteen following years 
he gave her a comfortable home. He kept an ac- 
quaintance with the inmates of the high-priest's pal- 
ace, such as secured his familiar entrance. Salome, 
his mother, was among those who ministered to 
Christ "of their substance," and who brought ex- 
pensive aromatic balsams and spices for the embalm- 
ing of the body of Jesus. 

~Rov is it necessary that we believe they were al- 
together unlettered and rude in their education. 
One expression there is in the Book of the Acts, 
which in our version has been forced to give an in- 
accurate notion of Peter and John. We are told 
that when the apostles were under arrest for the ex- 
citement produced by the healing of the lame man, 
the Jewish council "perceived that they were un- 



298 SIMON PETER : 

learned and ignorant." These terms are exagger- 
ated in the rendering they have received. It is not 
intended as a stately record that those preachers dis- 
played a lamentable want of cultivation in their pub- 
lic efforts, and showed themselves coarse and illit- 
erate. Such terms mean only that the supercilious 
Pharisees counted the apostles as without liberal 
learning — mere laymen, as it were, uninstructed in 
the letter of the law and the comments upon it. 

Perhaps it might be allowable for us to look on- 
ward a little in our investigation. Simon Peter 
lived to preach sermons; and the popular esteem of 
them was very eminent, if we may judge from the 
effect of his eloquence and his logic. Three thous- 
and converts were added to the company of believ- 
ers as the fruits of one of them, and five thousand 
more converts as the fruits of another. Paul is con- 
sidered the greatest of Christian scholars ; and yet 
when he argued for the resurrection of Jesus he 
employed the same proofs, and quoted the same in- 
spired texts as those which Simon had used before 
on the day of Pentecost. 

There remains, then, the question of Simon Peter's 
fame. Did it reach the " hundred-fold " that was 
promised? Yes, after it had reached the "persecu- 
tions " also which were included in the same en- 
gagement. 

Not many years ago, with a small company of 
tourists we stood upon the crown of the low hill in 
Rome, where the tomb of Cecilia Metella lifts itself 
beside the Appian Way. We enjoyed an uninter- 



" AN HUNDRED-FOLD." 299 

rupted reach of vision for miles away across the 
Eternal City. The Sabine mountains, lengthening 
out their straggling outlines, shadowy and blue, 
formed the framework of the landscape, on one side 
close to the Alban Hills. But the Campagna 
opened wide and free: at the first, desolate and 
bare, save that now and then the small wild flowers 
in the grass lit up the marshes with color; then, 
near the suburbs, there was here and there a villa; 
till, at last, the confused huddle of the houses began 
to display their red-tiled roofs, some campaniles 
blackened with time, many palaces, ruins, and 
churches — mingled in uninteresting masses of stone 
structure — all that goes to make up the modern 
town, the mystery and majesty of Rome. 

But just when the afternoon sun drew the long 
shadows across the*plains, and that wonderful glow 
in the west took possession of the atmosphere — that 
peculiar, indescribable, familiar, ruddiness of the 
Roman sunset — the yellow flitting over the violet, 
and the purple quivering delicately in the orange, 
with matchless shifting and interchange of hues — 
we recognized those vast edifices beyond the Tiber, 
which are grouped around the Vatican. And over 
irregular bulks of stone, rose that incomparable 
dome of St. Peter's Cathedral, like a round bubble 
in the air, "floating over the worship of the city." 
Then, as the wondrous beauty of that peerless 
cupola was disclosed, we all felt the meaning of 
Hawthorne's grand phrases of description, and 
quoted them with thorough appreciation : — 



300 SIMON PETEE | 

" At any nearer view, the grandeur of St. Peter's 
hides itself behind the immensity of its separate 
parts, so that we see only the front, only the sides, 
only the pillared length and loftiness of the portico, 
and not the mighty whole ; but at this distance the 
entire outline of the world's cathedral, as well as that 
of the palace of the world's chief priest, is taken in 
at once. In such remoteness, moreover, the im- 
agination is not debarred from rendering its assist- 
ance even while we have the reality before our eyes, 
and aiding the weakness of human sense to do justice 
to so grand an object. It requires both faith and 
fancy to enable us to feel, what is nevertheless so 
true, that yonder — in front of the purple outline of 
the hills — is the grandest edifice ever built by man, 
now painted against God's loveliest sky." 

Next evening we were within the building at 
vespers. Down among the kneeling throng of 
devotees came the parting rays of daylight, striking 
through the upper windows over the arches. Mys- 
terious music echoed around us through the cor- 
ridors, played by organs concealed, and sung by 
sweet voices out of sight. 

We stood leaning upon the stone railing which 
surrounds what they say h the sepulchre of Simon 
Peter. There, they tell us, is the dust of the old 
fisherman waiting for the resurrection morning. 
High above us rose the canopy of pillared bronze, 
fashioned out of plates which perhaps Paul saw on 
the Pantheon roof when he entered this imperial city, 
a prisoner of the Lord in chains. Beside that crypt, 



"AN HUNDRED-FOLD." 30I 

beneath which is the so-called tomb of this son of 
Jonas, in all the glory of shining candles and reverent 
hearts, we stood for an hour in silence, just allowing 
ourselves to be touched and swayed by the unseen 
influences around us. It does not appear like an 
exaggeration to say that no man with sensibilities 
keen and imaginative — with any measure of poetic 
feeling moving him — is always able to resist the tre- 
mendous force of this sensuous show. Here arises 
a monument, which, seen from outside or inside, is 
the finest thing in the world. What gave it to 
Simon Peter ? This inevitable question keeps press- 
ing : how did the fisherman of Galilee reach an 
exaltation of fame like this ? How was his life lifted 
into historic significance such as has moved the 
whole world for eighteen centuries in this way ? 
The answer is easy : Simon was the exact agent the 
Lord wanted to employ at that time. The explana- 
tion of all extraordinary successes in this man's life 
is found in the fact that Christ had a work for him, 
and Christ made a sovereign choice of him to do it. 
In one of his early papers concerning the apostolic 
age, Dean Stanley has called our attention to the 
fact that Simon's peculiar temperament fitted him 
for that exact transition moment in ecclesiastical 
history to which he was invited by providential 
events. A mingling of patriotism and piety — of 
personal enthusiasm with the national tradition — 
must be assumed, before we can understand him. 
And then we must remember how wonderful a field 
he was offered. 



302 SIMON PETER: 

Indeed, whatever of mighty strength there was in 
such motives was secured and intensified by the 
discipleship of Jesus, into the depth of which he 
rushed with his undivided soul. When Andrew 
saw the Form, to which John the Baptist pointed 
his glance, and comprehended that the Messiah of 
his race was at the moment walking within reach of 
his hope, he was doubtless awakened to high ex- 
pectations. But Andrew does not seem to have 
been capable of such masterful emotions as his 
brother felt in all he did for his new Teacher. The 
exalted heroism of the Jewish warrior was in Simon's 
heart; the inexhaustible zeal of the priesthood shone 
in his eyes ; the unforgotten traditions of the entire 
nation nerved him to action; for this was the Messiah 
so long looked for. Hence, when at last he came 
into companionship with that Nazarene Rabbi, the 
whole power of his being went out towards one whom 
he was to follow as Master and Lord. 

Sometimes he did not understand Jesus. He was 
always impulsively rushing up to him, as he did on 
the lake-shore just before the ascension ; and, at the 
instant of arrival, was always abashed. His affection 
and his awe gave way to each other in turn, when- 
ever either went into exercise. It was only gradu- 
ally, and through frequent struggles, that he reached 
the clear light of the new life, and began to win and 
to wear its beautiful graces, as the Saviour grew 
more and more evidently revealed to his spiritual 

sight. 

But his fidelity was fixed from the outset. He 



"AN HUNDRED-FOLD." 303 

called Omniscience for a witness even in his darkest 
hour: "Thou knowest that I love thee!" And so 
it. has been well said by those who were familiar with 
the two dispensations, that this fisherman was swept 
away before the grand impulse of such disclosures of 
the Christ, far more effectually than some of the 
seers of old ; for he had the reality of which they 
had but the sign. Hence his loyalty was fixed by 
one flash. What Ezekiel's vision, beside the river 
Chebar, was to him — what Daniel's glimmering pic- 
tures, upon the banks of Ulai, were to him — that 
Jesus' disclosure of himself, in the day spent at Beth- 
abara, was to the fisherman Simon. He was never 
thereafter the same man. One glance at Immanuel 
did for his soul what the resplendent spectacle of 
wheels and whirlwinds, goats, rams, and indescrib- 
able living creatures, going to and fro in the shining 
air, did for the ancient seers. That spectacle filled 
them with awe; impressed their minds with solem- 
nity; kindled them with faith; subdued them to 
service. And so here: the discovery of the Messiah 
in Jesus pervaded the whole soul of Simon Peter; 
he became a creature of his times. 

The period in this world's history into which 
his life fell, will serve as an explanation of many 
peculiarities of his behavior; it has in it what 
fashioned the entire career of this fisherman; it 
shows how he was fitted at such a moment for 
the service brought to him. Great exigencies 
had arisen, and the dearth of true men was 
simply pitiable. When Simon the son of Jonas was 



304 SIMON PETER : 

a boy of some ten years, playing among the pebbles 
on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus the son of 
Mary was born in Bethlehem. Thirty years after- 
ward, the whole Jewish hierarchy was convulsed by 
the same forces that moved the common people to 
almost revolutionary excitement. There arose a 
tremendous discussion concerning the coming of 
the nation's Messiah ; but at the same time it had to 
meet the agitating question which was still more 
awful, whether this peasant from Nazareth, who had 
suddenly appeared as a wandering rabbi with a 
following behind him, was himself the Christ they 
sought. Then all the skeptical forces in the world 
seemed acting restlessly at once, and the social, 
political, and religious world in Judsea began to rock 
with a tremulous kind of mysterious motion. The 
Hindus' fable is that this old earth is lodged on the 
back of a tortoise, and frequently along the ages it 
occurs that the tortoise becomes wearied, and so 
shifts his painful position: that makes an earthquake. 
There is something like this which is not fable : this 
world does rest on the back of a primeval reptile the 
name of which is Unbelief, and now and then he 
turns piteously in his slime. This was what made 
most commotion at the time when Tiberius was the 
emperor and Herod was the titular king. 

What was wanted was — a man. There was no 
lack of monarchs ; but that did not help much. In- 
spiration has said : " For the transgression of a land 
many are the princes thereof: but by a man of under- 
standing and knowledge the state thereof shall be 



"AN HUNDRED-FOLD. 305 

prolonged." And it is an oriental malediction even 
down to the present day for an exceedingly angry 
man to hurl at his enemy: "May God multiply your 
own sheikhs!" And it is thought to be a very 
witty thing for an old moralist to say in our English 
language : " Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoun- 
drel." But one who loves his country sighs when 
he has to admit it is true. Palestine was a poverty- 
stricken tributary of the Roman Empire; and yet 
the government found no lack of tax-gatherers to 
use in the consummation of its infamous purposes of 
extortion; it had plenty of applications for the office 
of publican among the Jews themselves. Standards 
of decency were scandalously lowered. Barriers of 
corruption were all broken down. This was to be 
expected : "the wicked walk on every side when the 
vilest men are exalted." But when Palestine needed 
patriots, when the long-predicted King called for 
subjects of his realm, when penitents to receive, and 
preachers to proclaim the new Gospel were wanted, 
then there was almost no response. Men became 
more precious than gold. Where were such men to 
be found in that day ? 

They had to be "raised up:" that is the inspired 
form of expression. God must choose his own 
instruments, train them, and bring them into con- 
spicuousness by his own wisdom and providence and 
sovereignty. 

But beginnings are very frequently small and dull. 
And most likely there will always be found some 
cavilers who will wonder at the choice that was 



306 simon peter: 

made of such persons as these first emissaries of the 
Gospel. Five apostles at once from a little village 
of seafaring men ! And Simon, son of Jonas, to be 
put in the lead ! 

Some things there are that people ought to re- 
member. One is that Christianity, as a system of 
religious faith, has been definitely constructed for 
propagation by rising. Religion kindles in an up- 
ward direction — like a flame. Grades of society 
must be set on fire, like layers of twigs, at the bottom. 
The Jews were unphilosophical when they asked as 
a test question, " Have any of the rulers believed on 
him ?" If they had, the common people would 
never have heard him gladly. Humble souls are 
exalted by the reception of Jesus' Gospel ; proud 
souls have to go down and be humbled before they 
can come up. To have attempted the conversion of 
that Israelitish nation through the reigning family 
of Herod and the nobles would have been as prepos- 
terous as to attempt to warm the sullen waters of the 
Dead Sea by floating beacons on its surface. 

Again, it ought to be remembered that all the 
pressure exerted to prove these men mean and un- 
educated only redounds in the end to the glory of 
that divine wisdom which selected them. For those 
mighty successes which the Gospel has achieved 
through their industry show the working of celestial 
forces in exact proportion to the human weakness 
involved. This is the firm and unfailing retort of 
the ages. If men's wisdom had taken the evangeli- 
zation of such a world in hand, it would have se- 



"AN HUNDRED-FOLD.' Z°7 

lected the profoundest rabbins, the acutest philoso- 
phers, the most eloquent orators, so as to grapple 
with the wilfulness of any opposition which Christi- 
anity was inevitably to receive. When Celsus urged 
that the apostles were "but a company of mean and 
illiterate persons, sorry mariners and fishermen," 
Origen was quick to return upon him the answer, 
"Then it is evident their power was from heaven, 
and their religion divine." 

A man was wanted ; here, then, he is found. 
Simon Peter commences a career: it is evident that 
refined and elegant people are not going to judge 
him fairly at the beginning. He makes a dreadfully 
poor show. We shall have to wait a few years, and 
then turn to our Bibles again. We find there two 
letters — called, in ordinary, quick-cut phrase, First 
and Second Peter. Who composed these epistles ? 
This same man? Certainly: the Bethsaida fisher- 
man. Thoroughly educated students have said that 
those two fragments of inspired Scripture are finished 
in the finest style of Greek prose in the New Test- 
ament. Who taught this man to write? What 
experience was it which moulded and mellowed that 
hard character into refinement, into tenderness ineff- 
able, gentleness and beauty ? 

There is no verse in the Bible more manifestly 
true than this one — ''The entrance of thy words 
giveth light ; it giveth understanding unto the 
simple." Insignificant indeed was the journey to 
Bethabara which led this man to meet his Master. 
But the transformation that followed it was over- 



3o8 simon peter: 

whelming. A great world lies between Simon and 
Peter. 

But we need not go so far as that. It is not 
necessary that we should believe that the Lord 
selected Simon Peter for such an office as that he 
eventually filled because of his plain defects; rather, 
indeed, in despite of them. More likely, by far, he 
chose him for some wonderfully fine elements of 
character he possessed for the certain work he had 
specially ordained him to do. He received him to 
become a personal Christian, of course, because by 
grace he was a repentant and believing man. But 
as his apostle he selected Peter — as he seems all 
through the New Testament history, and as Divine 
Wisdom seems in like manner all through the Old 
Testament history, to have chosen human instruments 
and agents — because of an executive efficiency and 
promise of serviceableness in the accomplishment of 
some extraordinary results he desired. For this 
truth comes out always in the sacred annals — the 
omniscient God selects men for an end and for an 
acknowledged purpose ; and he grounds his prefer- 
ence on their real fitness to compass the end and 
carry out the purpose. Hence, when we go on, 
looking ever for the higher virtues, seeking for ex- 
emplary superiority in individual goodness, search- 
ing, with eyes sometimes even captious and exacting, 
for striking evidences" of perfect sainthood in the 
divinely-chosen instruments of history, most likely 
we shall be simply disappointed, and perhaps 
ashamed. 



"AN HUNDRED-FOLD. 309 

Some respect is due to Simon Peter. It is easy 
enough wildly to find fault with him ; but we may 
as well be candid. • Peter is an attractive sort of man 
after all. He is bold, generous, tender-hearted and 
earnest. Grace has a sharp fight with him, but 
Grace wins in the end ; and while most of us are 
stumbling along, and exclaiming, pitifully discour- 
aged, as did John Howard more than once, " O 
Lord God, why me f " we may as well remember 
that the last word this apostle ever wrote was a 
thoughtful admonition and counsel — "Ye therefore, 
beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware 
lest ye also, being led away with the error of the 
wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow 
in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ." 

It is time to have done with these cavils at the 
behavior of Christian men. They were never set 
before us because of goodness. None of them are 
perfect. It will be well for most people to imitate 
their strong points, before they caricature their weak 
ones. Let us say to each other seriously — with all 
recognition of Peter's failings, and not a denial of 
one of them — that any man who enters heaven will 
not reach a low seat if he is assigned a place at that 
old fisherman's feet ! 



VOLUMES BY DR. ROBINSON. 



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SERMONS IN SONGS. 12mo. 1 25 

Sermons preached in the Memorial Church, New York city, the 
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